LC 



The Pedagogical Value of Willing- 
ness for Disinterested Service as 
Developed in the Training School 
of the State Teacher and in the 
Religious Novitiate and the Reli- 
gious Life. 



BY 

Sister MARY RUTH, M. A. 

OF THE 

Sisters op Saint Dominic, Sinsinawa, Wis. 



A DISSERTATION 

Submitted to the Catholic Sisters College of the Catholic University 

of America in Partial Fulfillment oj the Requirements 

for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 
JUNE, 1917 



.'••'','.■•■.:'■'■.'' 



% 



The Pedagogical Value of Willing- 
ness for Disinterested Service as 
Developed in the Training School 
^ of the State Teacher and in the 
Religious Novitiate and the Reli- 
gious Life. 



BY 

Sister MARY RUTH, M. A. 

OF THE 

Sisters of Saint Dominic, Sinsinawa, Wis. 



A DISSERTATION 

Submitted to the Catholic Sisters College of the Catholic University 

of America in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements 

for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 
JUNE, 1917 



V ^K 

V 



. * 



NATIONAL CAPITAL PKESS, INC., WASHINftTON 



"^ PREFACE 

The purpose of this study is to discover in what school a 
willingness for disinterested service, an essential element of 
citizenshij), can most effectively be cultivated. Modern the- 
orists recognize that the education of the young for citizenship 
is the primary obligation of the State; for the permanence of 
our institutions is dependent upon the character of our citi- 
zens. The method of historical approach adopted here involves 
a somewhat detailed survey of the means of training for citi- 
zenship in the schools of our country; this survey extends from 
the colonial period to the present time. 

Since instruction alone fails to reach the deep springs of 
conduct, character-forming in the school is vitally dependent 
upon the personality of the teacher. This being true, the prob- 
lem of training citizens in disinterested service centers in the 
training of the teacher. The actual value of present teacher- 
training in developing the elements of character which form 
the moral foundation, and the actual methods and practices in 
operation to accomplish this primary end of State education 
can with profit, we think, be subjected to more critical study 
than has hitherto been given them. 

This study is an inquiry, therefore, into the means employed 
by each of the two school systems of the United States to 
furnish teachers equipped for the important work of teaching 
disinterested service. In this study we purpose to consider the 
three elements which enter into this equipment. These elements 
are: the selection of the candidates for teaching, the teacher- 
training of the candidates, and the training of the teachers 
while in service. The problem is to determine the relative value 
of the contribution of the State school system and of the 
Catholic school system to the training for disinterested serv- 
ice; that is, disinterested service as an element of citizenship 
in the United States. The answer lies in the relative emphasis 
placed by each of the school systems upon these tlu'ee elements 
of training which are strong factors in the process of forminp 
teachers to practice disinterested service and, therefore, of 
equipping them to cultivate in pupils the same moral (piality. 

The writer is happy to have this opportunity to acknowledge 
gratefully the valuable assistance and encouragement given 
by the Very Reverend Thomas Edward Shields, Ph.D., under 
whose direction this dissertation was written. 

February 2, 1917. 

s 



THE PEDAGOGICAL VALUE OF WILLINGNESS FOR DIS- 
INTERESTED SERVICE AS DEVELOPED IN THE 
TRAINING SCHOOL OF THE STATE TEACHER 
AND IN THE RELIGIOUS NOVITIATE AND THE 
RELIGIOUS LIFE. 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preliminary Statement 7 

Chapter I. — ^The Qualities of Citizenship 10 

Chapter II. — ^The Means of Training for Citizenship in the 

Colonial and Transitional Schools of Our Country 21 

Chapter III. — ^The Specific Means of Training for Citizen- 
ship in the Secularized Schools of the United States .... 35 

Chapter IV. — The Personality of the Teacher 58 

Chapter V. — ^The Preparation of the State Teacher to Train 

in Willingness for Disinterested Service 73 

Chapter VI. — The Preparation of the Religious Teacher to 

Train in Willingness for Disinterested Service 105 

Conclusion 146 

Bibliography 148 



PKELIMINAKY STATEMENT 

The aim ol education determines the principles that control 
it and the ideals that animate it. Educational organization 
follows and depends upon the social changes ot a nation and 
attempts to darry out the ideas involved in the changes. The 
controlling purpose of all fcstate education is to train its mem- 
bers for efficient citizenship. The principle underlying its 
entire educational policy is the right of the State to self- 
preservation, from which principle follows its power to adopt 
lawful means necessary to secure its well-being. Upon this 
principle rests the argument and justification of educating 
individuals at public expense. Since the State depends for its 
very permanence upon the education of its citizens, it is fulfill- 
ing its primary and essential function when it occupies itself 
wdth the task of furnishing individual opportunity of education 
to the children of the masses, 

^V^hile the State attempts to develop the personal power and 
responsibility of the individual, it attempts to do so only as 
a means to attain the larger end of efficient social action. Its 
supreme purpose is to make for social progress, and its entire 
system, in theory at least, is orientated with reference to the 
maintenance and the progress of the State. Especially is this 
the present trend of educational science, as is evidenced by 
the inquiry of a large class of educators into the relationship 
between school work and other social activities. Instead of 
regarding the school as an end in itself, they are giving syn- 
thetic thought to the relationship between school problems 
and the general welfare of the community. This conception 
of the school in close relation to the social environment has 
grown out of the instinctive sense of the need of something to 
take the place of those religious and moral processes of educa- 
tion now almost neglected.^ 

Another class of educators holds that the ideal of education 
is personal, and the aim, the development of personality. 
According to this theory of individualism, the improvement 
of society is a secondary consideration. Attention is focused 
upon making the individual better without thought of estab- 



' Cf. Sadler, M. E., "The School in Relation to Social Organization," Con- 
gress of Arts and Sciences. Boston. 1907, Vol. VIII, p. 95. Cf. Snedden, D. 
Vocational Education. Boston, 191^, p. IV. 



8 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

lishiug a consciousness of community relations. Any adequate 
concept of education must recognize both the claims of society 
and the claims of the individual. "The mission of the school is 
to shape the development of the individual with a view both 
to his personal growth in virtue and to the discharge of his 
social obligations.'"- The same basic thought is expressed by 
Doctor Monroe: ''From whatever interest, whether practical 
or theoretical, or from whatever line of investigation, the 
problem of education is now approached, its meaning is given 
in some terms of this harmonization of social and individual 
factors. It is the process of conforming the individual to the 
given social standard or type in such a manner that his inherent 
capacities are developed, his greatest usefulness and happiness 
obtained, and, at the same time, the highest welfare of society 
is conserved."^ 

On the basis that education has two aspects and involves 
two factors, (1) the development of the individual, (2) the 
creation and cultivation of his sense of obligation to society, 
the first step is to consider the character of the citizen in 
whom is effected an equilibrium between individual interests 
and social interests. Agere sequitur esse is a scholastic maxim. 
External conduct depends upon interior discipline. If the 
State would make itself secure as a socially efficient community, 
it must look to the personal character of its citizens quite as 
zealously as to their vocational training. "Preparation for the 
duties of citizenship is not less indispensable than preparation 
for a trade. And preparation for the duties of citizenship 
means that the school must endeavor to impart a civic and 
moral ideal."* 

At this time when vocational education and social efficiency 
are occupying the central place in the educational conscious- 
ness, and the moral demands of our complex social life are 
increasingly great, the problem of moral and civic education 
becomes vitally important and calls for serious consideration. 
Of the fourfold division of the educative process given by Dr. 



2 Pace, E. A., "Education and the Constructive Aims," Constructive 
Quarterly, Vol. Ill, p. 601. 

» Monroe, P., Text-book in the History of Education. New York, 1905, pp. 
755-56. . ^. . 

* Sadler, M. E., ' 'Introduction' ' to Education for Citizenship, by Kerschen- 
steiner, G. Chicago, 1911, p. IX. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 9 

Snedden, this is the form of education designed to fit tlie indi- 
vidual to live among his fellows."^ 

In connection with moral training as a means of forming 
good civic habits the value of work must be recognized, not 
merely in the sense of a productive process, but as an invaluable 
factor in giving bent to the unformed will and, therefore, in 
developing character. "The chief enemy of active virtue in the 
world is not vice, but laziness, languor and apathy of will."** 
It is admitted, therefore, that a certain amount of manual 
training, exercise in the household arts, and other industrial 
features of the school which have been introduced without 
reference to the promotion of industrial efficiency have, if 
properly directed, a real value not fully understood or appreci- 
ated. "While work and habit are the best means of overcoming 
our selfishness and indolence, and thus leaving the way free 
for other efl'orts, especially the altruistic, they do more than 
this; they produce the desire to be good and moral. "^ Aristotle 
said that habit is the basis of virtue and that acts form habits. 
"The virtues we acquire by previous practice of their acts, 
exactly as we acquire our knowledge of the various arts. We 
become masons, for instance, by building ; and harpers by play- 
ing on the harp. And so, in like manner, we become just by 
doing what is just, temperate by doing what is temperate, and 
brave by doing what is brave. . . . And, indeed, in a 
word, it is by acts of like nature with themselves that all habits 
are formed."^ Aristotle's criterion of moral training was the 
habits that were formed and the bent that was given the 
child's activity from its earliest years. Practical training of 
the will conditions fundamentally the efifectiveness of education, 
both in vocational training and in the development of char- 
acter. Assuming that a certain training in personal efficiency 
will be given, we shall consider the virtues that should be 
interwoven into the moral fiber of the citizen. 



* Cf . Snedden, D., Vocational Training, op. cif., pp. 3. 4. 

» Hall, G. S., Educational Problems. New York. 1911, Vol. I., p. 295. 
' Kerschensteiner, op. cit, p. 55. 

• Nicomachean Ethics, translated from Bekker's text by Williams, R. Lon- 
don. 1879, Bk. II, p. 30. 



CHAPTER I 

THE QUALITIES OF CITIZENSHIP 

The essence of character lies in the power and strength of 
independent determination guided by proper motivation. The 
sphere of moral conduct includes thoughts, emotions, purposes, 
and external conduct. Virtues make character. All virtues are 
to be exalted. Foremost among them, both from the personal 
and social point of view as forming both the condition and 
the inspiration of the strictly civic virtues by furnishing ideals 
and motives to dominate material values and sanctions, we 
name the fundamental virtues of faith, hope, and charity," 
regarded purely as natural virtues, and then, the heightened 
value of these same natural virtues when suffused with the 
corresponding supernatural qualities. 

The faith of man in his fellow-man is both the foundation 
and the bond of society and of social solidarity. Without it 
there would be social disruption, as individuals are mutually 
dependent upon each other for their material needs as well as 
for social law and order. In the simplest and in the most 
imijortant and intricate affairs of life, man is linked and 
bound to the individuals of his community by social obliga- 
tions which he cannot repudiate. But social obligation is a 
meaningless phrase to a man without an undying faith in the 
essential integrity of his fellow-man. Social life has its vitality 
in the faith of man in his fellows. Trust in man's word is an 
indispensable condition of society. The huge system of credit 
which forms so great a part of the machinery of trade and 
commerce is based upon human trust. Mutual confidence con- 
ditions absolutely the launching of industrial enterprises. But 
far above the consideration of faith as an economic virtue is 
its value as a social and moral virtue. Man trusts the loyalty 
of a friend or a brother; he believes in the virtue of his parents 
and he gives them a sacrificing devotion which the certainty 
of evidence could not increase. "All heroic conduct springs 
from the confidence which comes of faith. Knowledge does not 
suffice; for what will be the outcome of a given series of human 
acts cannot be known, and must be taken on trust.'" ° 



» Cf. Shields, T. E., "Some Relations between the Catholic School and the 
Public School System." The Catholic EdiicaHonal Revieic, Vol. XII, p. 144. 
10 Spalding, .T.' L., Things of the Mind. Chicago, 1894, p. 190. 

10 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 11 

Faith in a man'« integrity may be at times a suiiicieut mural 
stimulus to evoke Lis honest action, so potent is the power ot 
suggestion upon the mind. It is a strong constructive force of 
society. Conversely, distrust of a neighbor is a dissolving force 
of the bonds of solidarity, tending to disintegrate society into 
an aggregate of warring atoms, liomanes says: "What a 
terrible hell science would have made of the world if she had 
abolished the spirit of faith in human relations."'^ Faith in 
fellow-man is a quality which makes for a fraukuess, sincerity, 
and simplicity of character entirely consistent with deep 
thinking, wide knowledge, cultivated sympathies; it is the 
basic condition of the bond of fellowship and of all right 
human relations. From the viewpoint of reason alone, inde- 
pendent of supernatural teaching, faith in fellow-man is the 
principle underlying the doctrine of the brotherhood of man. 

The natural reason for human faith is the principle of the 
essential equality and dignity of man, with his gifts of reason 
and free will enabling him to act with his fellows. The 
appreciation of this equality will be in proportion to his insight 
into what is deepest and noblest in human nature. Here 
Christian teaching illumines the philosophical valuation of 
man. To contemplate the nature of the human soul stamped 
with the Divine Image which endows it with the potentialities 
of its spiritual nature; to contemplate all men forming one 
great brotherhood with God as their Father, each the object of 
His personal love, and each purchased at a great price for 
an eternal destiny which human understanding is unable to 
appreciate: these considerations heighten and deepen a man's 
faith in his fellow-man, elevate his motives to a supernatural 
plane, and strengthen them by supernatural sanctions. "Where 
are the true sources of human dignity, of liberty, and of modern 
democracy if not in the notion of the Infinite, before Whom 
all men are equal ?"^2 Divine faith quickening and energizing 
human faith increa.ses the potent influence of man's faith in 
man upon all hnman relations. 

" Romanes, G. F., Thoughts on Religion. Chicago. 1893. p. 1.50. 

" "Ou sont les vraies sources de la dignity humaine, de la liberty et de la 
democratic moderne, sinon dans la notion de I'lnfini devant laquelle tons les 
hommes sont ^gaux?" Pasteur, L., "Address to the AcadSmie frangaise," 
quoted by Chatterton-Hill, G., The Soeiologieal Valve of Chrittianity. Lon- 
don. 1912, p. XV. 



12 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

Hope is an essential virtue for the citizen and is begotten 
of faith in his neighbor. Faith and tru^ in the sincerity of 
man's social relationships furnish the basis of his hope in the 
permanence of the State and in the perpetuity of her institu- 
tions. Faith leads to hope, and hope vivifies faith. The virtue 
of hope is necessary to strengthen man in resisting the pressure 
and tyranny which come from the forces about him and from 
the inclinations within him. "Combats without, fears within," 
said Saint Paul.^'^ Just as in the life of the spirit the vision 
of the prophet and the creation of the artist have a value far 
above that of material things, so in the life of the citizen hope 
has a value to sustain his aspirations above the dull uniformity 
of the daily round of duties. The instinct which urges man 
to seek happiness in all his conscious acts shows that his 
greatest desire is happiness. Some men seek it in wealth; 
others in honors; some in devotion to family and friends; 
others in service of humanity. Some seek it for this life ; others 
for the life to come. The object which one seeks becomes to 
him an object of hope. But ''the slothful man saith: there is 
a lion in the way."^* Therefore, the virtue of hope is necessary 
to keep the purpose strong in the face of trials and temptations. 
Hope presupposes the desire of an end, difficult and uncertain. 
Essentially, it consists in excluding uncertainty from con- 
sciousness and in cherishing a courageous outlook in the face 
of difficulties. It is, therefore, a direct exercise of the will 
and is a mainspring of activity and progress. 

Natural hope cannot persist in the face of repeated failures. 
Nothing lessens the desire to advance as does the want of 
prospects. With hope abandoned, no stimulus for improve- 
ment remains. The pressure that the idealizing value of hope 
lays upon conduct may be seen in the idealism of the Greeks, 
who created the splendid vision of the Olympic gods to refresh 
themselves after weariness and fatigue, a vision which sus- 
tained them amid the sufferings of the world.^^ The virtue of 
Christian hope has for its object the reality of the blessed 
vision of God. It becomes a great moral force, supporting 
man steadily and perseveringly along the road of suffering and 



13 II. Corinthians, VII, 5. 

i« Proverbs, XXVI, 13. 

« Cf. Chatterton-Hill, G., op. cit., p. 209. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 13 

sacrifice. It gives a new direction to liis efforts and helps 
him to rise above self to attain tliis Blessed Vision. He is 
willing to forego the greatest present enjoyment to win the 
object of his hope. The discouragement that springs from a 
man's sense of failure or weakness will be overcome by the 
hope that in the moment of need, God will strengthen him. 
"1 can do all things in Him Who strengtheneth me."^*^ The 
virtue of hope may be entirely independent of the natural 
disposition, and should be studiously cultivated. Above this 
natural virtue, reinforcing it and furnishing motives of far 
greater buoyancy and an energy of undying attraction, is the 
supernatural virtue of hope based upon the promises of Christ. 
Man's love for his fellow-man is, and of necessity must be, 
the bond of Christian society. It springs from his faith and 
hope in his fellow-man, and in their deepest roots the three 
virtues are connected. Love of man presupposes faith in him ; 
if not in the existence of actual virtues, at least in the potencies 
of his nature. Man is by nature a social being with the social 
instinct. Integration is the fundamental condition of social 
life. The strongest integrating principle is love. ''It is not 
enough for peace and concord to be preserved among men by 
precepts of justice unless there be a further consolidation of 
mutual love."^^ In man are both the egoistic and the altruistic 
instincts. It is the work of education to adjust these two 
germinal tendencies; to cherish a cheerful devotion to others 
and at the same time to preserve the power of moral self- 
assertion. Left to himself, man would seek only the satisfac- 
tion of the egoistic impulse which has its roots deepest in his 
nature. Yet in the life of the citizen, the continual subordina- 
tion of the interests of the self-centered instinct to the larger 
interest of humanity must be secured. The altruistic feeling 
must increase and dominate the egoistic impulse to such a 
degree that it will flow out through social life. This is the 
crux of the question— how can the interests of the individual 
and of society be reconciled? It is manifest that the two are 
irreconcilable on any rational basis. According to Benjamin 



'« Philippians, V, 1.3. 

" Saint Thomas, Of God and His Creatures, translated by Rickabv, Jos.. S 
J., London, 1905, p. 295. 



14 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

Kidd/* George Ciiatterton-Hiil/^ F. W. Foerster/° and others, 
that conduct which subordinates the personal interests to the 
social interests is inspired only by the supernatural sanctions. 
The arguments of these writers for the objective value of 
religion are, however, a vindication of Christianity purely 
from its pragmatic side. 

That egoism is the innate impulse is certain, and altruism is 
developed in proportion as man conceives his fellow-men as 
beings of the same nature as himself, thinking and feeling as 
he thinks and feels. As the estimate of the value of his fellow- 
men grows, and the conception of the relation between the 
individual and the community becomes clearer, his sympathy 
grows. To prepare tlie way for altruism has been the work 
of Christianity, which teaches the equality of man before God 
and the value of the individual soul by virtue of its immor- 
tality, and which places upon every one the command, ''Love 
thy neighbor as thyself."^^ ''No one is aware how deeply and 
from the beginning that precept [of charity] has been im- 
planted in the breast of Christians, and what abundant fruits 
of concord, miitual benevolence, piety, patience, and fortitude 
it has produced."^^ Selfishness obscures the great notes of 
social duty, and unless it is restrained it becomes an instru- 
ment of social disintegration. It is conquered by religion, whicli 
by its message of the Cross touches the deepest spriugs of 
conduct and awakens the desire of self-sacrifice which lies in 
potentia in the depths of every human heart, ''It is the love 
of one's fellow-man deified in the Person of Christ, and not 
the vague demands of honor fashioned by dim-sighted justice, 
which can counteract the promptings of cupidity and the 
claims of selfishness."^^ Christian charity subordinates the 
individual aims to social aims, and at the same time recog- 
nizes the dignity of the individual irrespective of his social 
position. It is the bond of fraternity through communion with 
Christ which rises beyond the limits of society to seek for a 



18 Cf. Social Evolution. New York. 1894, -passim. 

19 Cf. The Sociological Vabie of Christianity, op. cit., passim. 

20 Cf. Marriage and the Sex Problem, translated by Bootli, M., New York, 
1912, passim. 

21 Cf. Kerschensteiner, G., op. cit., p. 51. 

'2 Pope Leo XIIT, Encyclical Letter, "Sapientiae Christianae," The Pope 
and the People, London, 1912. p. 174. 

" Wright, T., Christian Citizenship. London, 1914, p. 20. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 15 

liigiier sauctiou for conduct in the Source of Inexhaustible 
Good. "Human solidarity bids us love our brothers as our- 
selves, by reason of our common humanity; Christian charity 
decrees that we love these by reason of the divinity in w^hich 
we alike participate. Human solidarity demands of us that 
we help others to realize in themselves the ideal of the upright 
man ; Christian charity imposes on us the duty of aiding othei n 
to become not manly alone, but God-like. Ouce more, human 
solidarity visualizes all things from the bounds of the earthly 
horizon, and aims at the victory of manhood; Christian charity 
opens up for us the heavenly horizon, and would have us, 
through this human victory, win God for others and for 
ourselves."^* 

Because of the essential spirituality of man's nature, faith, 
hope and charity form the groundwork of man's character. 
Faith in fellow-man establishes mutual trust. Hope sustains 
effort. In hoping, man loves what he holds by faith. These 
virtues inspire the spirit which should characterize man in all 
his relationships — of the family, of the community, and of 
the State. They are actualized in proportion as the will en- 
lightened by the ideal draws upon the energy of the emotional 
nature to sustain its efforts. Faith, hope, and charity as super- 
natural virtues do not supersede the natural virtues but suf- 
fuse them with light and give them limitless energy from an 
Infinite Source. 

The three virtues, faith, hope, and love, form the fruitful 
source of the strictly civic virtues, namely, reverence for law, 
self-control, and patriotism or willingness for disinterested 
service.^' Systematic training in these virtues is as important 
as training in personal efficiency to form the good citizen. 
Efficiency does not guarantee good citizenship. When it is not 
lifted above the personal satisfaction derived from it, in eithei- 
skill or profit, it contributes purely to personal advantage and 
fosters selfishness. Such individualism is scarcely in harmony 
with the spirit of cooperation, which is so vital a factor in civic 
life. 

Eeverence for law is pre-eminently a civic virtue which has n 



•-< Gillet, M. S., O.P., The Education of Characier. translated by Green, B. 
New York. 1914, pp. 103-104. 

» Cf. Shields, T. E.. op. cit., p. 144. 



16 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

twofold aspect, as seen from the viewpoint of those in authority 
and the viewpoint of the private citizen. What is needed for 
the legislator, for the administrator, and for the interpreter of 
law is a deep sense of its inherent value. It is important that 
they realize that the purpose of government is the common 
good; that the basis of positive law is the natural law written 
in the hearts of men ; that the primary function of the State is 
to particularize by law the rights founded in nature ; that upon 
them lies the obligation to give an effective sanction to the law. 
Then politics will be invested with the noble function of pro 
moting virtue and preventing vice. Then will be realized in 
fact what in every Christian age has been held a principle, 
''The government of society is in the nature of a trust, and those 
who govern are in the position of trustees."^^ 

On the other hand, legislation is futile unless the love of law 
is planted in the hearts of the people, and the habit of obedience 
to law is steadily formed in the citizens. Coercion, whether of 
force or of intimidation, is useless to secure the ends of legisla- 
tion. Public sentiment is a force from without which can never 
secure whole-hearted loyalty. The spirit of obedience is an 
internal force, moving the will to act in accordance with cOn 
science which bears witness to the right of authority and the 
duty of obedience. When the citizen conceives unrestrained 
liberty as the destruction of peace and order, and law as the 
guardian of true liberty, and the legislation of the State as the 
means of securing it, he has the rational basis for obedience to 
law. To grasp this relationship of law and liberty requires an 
insight into social conditions and intelligent reflection beyond 
the reach of the great masses of men. But the inherent binding 
force of law becomes clear and inspires obedience when the 
nature and source of civil authority is known. From the begin- 
ning. Christian teaching has spoken with certainty : *'Let every 
soul be subject to higher powers : for there is no power but from 
God: and those that are, are ordained of God. Therefore he 
that resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And 
they that resist purchase to themselves damnation. . . . Where- 
fore be subject of necessity, not only for wrath, but also for 



" Chatteiton-Hill, G., op. cit., p. 102. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 17 

conscience' sake.""^ Keligion lends the support of its liigli sanc- 
tion to the law of the State. In so far as man violates the law, 
provided it conforms to the moral law, he violates the moral law 
itself. Eeligion quickens civil duty, therefore, by giving it a 
supernatural motive. Obedience to law and to those in autho: 
ity is enjoined upon man's conscience. On the other hand, 
those who govern are responsible for the welfare of those whom 
they rule. Civil authority is by delegation from God. Saint 
Paul insists upon the responsibility of those to whom is com- 
mitted the affairs of government and enjoins obedience to them, 
adding, "For they watch as being to render an account of your 
souls."^* 

Self-control is as essentially a civic virtue as it is a moral 
virtue. The individual is the only reality and the State is what 
its citizens are. "That State is undoubtedly the best which 
can form the most powerful unit while granting the greatest 
amount of personal and political freedom to the individual, the 
family, and the commuuity."^^ The State can grant liberty to 
self -disciplined citizens because they are trained to meet respon- 
sibility which is the correlative of freedom. "Natura obe- 
diendo vincitur," Newton said. We conquer self by obeying the 
principle that makes us truly rational beings. This principle 
is that in the conflict between man's higher and lower self the 
higher nature shall dominate. The economic view of life that 
material prosperity constitutes happiness has furthered greed 
and a disposition to seek ease and softness of life, resulting in 
hedonism. "The greed of possession and the thirst for pleasure 
are twin plagues which too often make a man who is devoid of 
restraint miserable in the midst of abundance."^'' Rationalistic 
morality is limited to the individual during his lifetime, and 
makes the greatest amount of personal pleasure the supreme 
object of life. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall 
die,"^^ is the basic principle and the summum honum of hedo- 
nistic philosophy. 

Effective morality is inspired by a principle higher than 



" Romans, XIII, 1, 2, 5. 
28 Hebrews, XIII, 17. 
^ Kerschensteiner, G., op. cit., p. 22. 

^ Pope Leo XIII., "Rerum Novarum," The Pope and the People, op. cit., p. 
196. 
3' I. Corinthians, XV. 32. 



18 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

human reason. "A belief in the spiritual destiny of man 
. . . is the first necessity in arousing and developing a 
spiritual conscience in the human race, a sense of the bonudeu 
duty of resisting the lower self. Unless this feeling has been 
brought into being, morality has no soul in which to take 
root."^^ The Christian religion furnishes such a principle. It 
teaches that "a man's life doth not consist in the abundance of 
things which he possesseth."^^ "For what doth it profit a 
man, if he gain the whole world, and suft'er the los.s of Iiis own 
soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?''"^ 
Christianity does more than give ideals; it gives the strongest 
motive possible to inspire conduct, for it furnishes supernatural 
sanctions and opens the treasures of grace and places Divine 
power at man's call to help him in the struggle to overcome 
inherent indolence and selfishness. 

A third civic virtue is disinterested patriotism, the essence of 
which is a devotion to the common good of sufficient intensity 
to function as disinterested service. It flows from the basic 
quality of love. All mutual service springs from the bond of 
charity. Saint Thomas says : "Since the love of parents in- 
cludes the love of kin, in the love of country is embraced the 
love of fellow-citizens and all friends of our country."^^ "It is 
precisely because the State is bound up so intimately with the 
homes of a country — the champion of their liberty, the source 
of their corporate well-being, the promoter of their civilization, 
the rivet in the links of unity welded by blood-ties, a common 
language, and national traditions and customs — that patriot- 
ism, the love of our fatherland, really consists of the love of our 
fellow-citizens and all friends of our country."^^ 

Out of any relations into which men enter, there spring obli- 
gations binding upon each party to the relationship. Man's 
duty of devotion to his community grows out of his relations to 
others as a member of society, which secures to each individual 
opportunity for personal development, and demands from him 
in return a personal responsibility to promote its well-being. 



52 Foerster, F. W., op. cit., p. 131. 

5' Luke XII, 15. 

" Matthew XVI, 26. 

^^ Svmnia Theologica, la, Ilae, Q Cf, A. 1. 

36 Wright. T., op. cit., p. 61. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 19 

There is much confusion of mind as to what constitutes 
patriotism. It is a distorted idea of this civic virtue that it 
consists in saluting the flag, in singing "America" and "Tlie 
Star Spangled Banner" and in exalting national heroes. These 
are the sign and symbol of patriotism and a stimulus to patri- 
otic feeling, and have their place, but they are not its essence. 
The characteristically essential note of patriotism is the will- 
ingness to subordinate private interests to the public good. 
The problem is how to restrain the selfishness of the individual 
and to strengthen his feeling of social S(didari ty. This is a 
world-old problem. Plato attached great importance to devo- 
tion to the community, and he criticized the politicians in 
power in his day. Even against Pericles, the greatest figure of 
Athens, he brought grave indictment: "Whom has he made 
better? For we have admitted that this is the statesman's 
proper business. And we must ask the same question about 
Pericles, and Cinion, and Miltiades, and Themistocles. Whom 
did they make better? Nay, did not Pericles make the citizens 
worse? For he gave them pay, and at first he was very popular 
with them, but at last they condemned him to death. . . . 
And Pericles, who had the charge of man, only made him 
wilder, and more savage, and unjust, and therefore he could not 
have been a good statesman.'-^^ 

The same problem exists today in an acute form. Instead of 
realizing the duty of assisting the State to fulfill its functions 
in the interests of the community, men are apt to look upon it 
as the artificial creation of politicians of which they may 
remain independent at will. The State is the completion of the 
life of the individual, without which he could not wholly live, 
and to whose interest he must be willing to sacrifice his own. 
Here it becomes apparent that the distinct civic spirit is impor- 
tant, and that the moral virtue of self-control be expanded into 
the civic virtue of devotion to the common good. By the civic 
spirit is meant an abiding interest in the welfare of the com- 
munity, city, and state, and a sense of civic obligation derived 
from the general sentiment of fraternity towards all mankind, 



" "Gorgias," Dialogues of Pluto, translated by Jowett, B. London, 1892, 
A. 515, 516. 



20 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

but quite distinct from such sentiment. It is the sentiment 
which constitutes the essence of public-spiritedness. 

Man's feeling of citizenship is a realizing sense that his per- 
sonal aims and objects are essential constituents of the pur- 
poses of a definitely organized community, extending from his 
own social group to the national administration. Personal 
interests must be extended to general interests. The citizen 
should know in proportion to his capacity what the nation 
really is, what things are vital to its well-being, and what his 
duty to it is. He should not only uphold the law, but he should 
strive to improve it and the methods of applying it, all of which 
require civic preparation. The citizen may have the civic intel- 
ligence, however, and yet lack the civic virtues. ''Civic knowl- 
edge may be possessed by the most hardened egotist as well as 
by the most arrant rogue, and civic virtues may be found where 
knowledge of the work and workings of a State is entirely 
absent."^^ The essential aims of a nursery of civic virtue should 
be to give the individual a proper grasp of the relation between 
the interests of the individual and those of the State, but more 
especially to give the spirit of the willingness for disinterested 
service and to force the individual to practice it. Once this 
distinctly civic virtue finds place in the natural character, the 
civic responsibility of the citizen will be essentially deepened. 
How can this dififlcult task be accomplished? It is the reap- 
pearance of the old question, how can the interests of society 
and of the individual be reconciled? "The needs of society and 
the needs of the individual can be satisfied only if we seek out- 
side this finite life for a principle reconciling the two."^^ Un- 
doubtedly, the element of self-sacrifice is the vital factor in the 
solution of the problem. This answer leads to the further 
problem which lies at the heart of the task of training for 
disinterested citizenship; namely, how can the spirit of self- 
sacrifice be cultivated in the school? 



^ Kerschensteiner, G., op. cit., pp. 97, 98. 
3« Chatterton-Hill, op. cit., p. 204. 



CHAPTER II 

THE MEANS OF TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP IN THE COLONIAL AND 
TRANSITIONAL SCHOOLS OF OUR COUNTRY 

The present is the outcome and development of the past. A 
knowledge of the basic educational elements which made good 
citizens in the germinal past of our countr}^ should illuminate 
the present complex problem of how to educate the youth to 
serve the interests of the group. There was no national spirit 
in the colonial days, but there was heroic devotion to the general 
good of the community. That the colonists were filled with the 
spirit of constructive citizenship and the spirit of disinterest- 
edness, which is the essence of true patriotism, is an unques- 
tioned fact, which warrants an inquiry into the education that 
must have contributed in some degree to form their character ; 
to make them seek the fulfillment of duty rather than self- 
aggrandizement ; to make them men who preferred the common 
welfare to the advancement of their own interests. 

The educational facilities of the colonists were primitive. To 
enter upon a full account of their schools is entirely beyond the 
scope of the present paper, which is concerned only with civic 
education. Only in so far as a consideration of general educa- 
tion illuminates the special problem of training for citizenship 
does it lie within the province of this inquiry. The principle 
that the education of a free people is the essential condition of 
the preservation of its liberties was widely held in the colonial 
period, but there was not a glimpse of specific training for 
citizenship. Although we are directly concerned with the 
teaching of disinterested patriotism, yet, inasmuch as the moral 
interests of life are the deepest and most far-reaching influences 
upon conduct, all moral education and character building is 
intimately related to specific civic education. "To isolate the 
formal relationship of citizenship from the whole system of 
relations with which it is actually interwoven; to suppose that 
there is some one particular study or mode of treatment which 
can make a child a good citizen ; to suppose, in other words, 
that a good citizen is anything more than a thoroughly efficient 
and serviceable member of society, one with all his powers of 

21 



22 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

body and mind under control, is a hampering superstition 
which it is hoped may soon disappear from educational discus 
sion."*° The citizen must be a good man in order to be a good 
citizen. 

The earliest impulses which education in the colonies received 
came from several sources, corresponding to the type of colonist. 
They had all come from Europe. They founded schools patterned 
closely after those of the country from which they themselve;^ 
had come. ''The seventeenth century was, therefore, for Ameri- 
can education distinctly a period of 'transplantation of schools," 
with little or no conscious change; and it is only toward the 
middle of the next century, as new social and puiirical condi- 
tions were evolving, . . . that there are evident the gradual 
modification of European ideals and the differentiation of 
American schools toward an ideal of their own."*^ 

The first schools were those of the Spanish Franciscans in 
Florida and New Mexico, which were in existence in 1629, four 
years before the establishment of the oldest school in the thir- 
teen eastern colonies.^- These were, therefore, the first elemen- 
tary schools in the present territory of the United States. 

Permanency of education, however, which is a prerequisite of 
organized educational effort, began in the eastern colonies, and 
there three types of school organization found place: (1) The 
parochial system in New Netherlands and the other middle 
colonies. (2) The laissez faire* method iu Virginia and the 
four other southern colonies. (3) The governmental system in 
Massachusetts and most of the other New England colonies.** 
The colonists had come to America to establish institutions in 
conformity with their own ideals. Religious interests domi- 
nated, and education was formed almost without exception on 
a religious basis. 

The earliest of these educational foundations was made in 
New Amsterdam in 1633 by the Dutch,** where, besides reading, 



*" Dewey, J., Moral Principles in Education. Boston, 1909, p. !). 

" Graves, F. P., A Student's History of Edvcation. New York, 1915, p. 188. 

*^ Cf. Burns, .J. A., The Catholic System iji the United States. New York, 
1908, p. 39. Cf. Hcport of Commissioner of Education, 1903, Vol. I, p. 555. 

* We accept the use of this term not in the sense of indifference, but rather 
in the sense of lack of system due to geographic and social conditions. 

« Cf. Graves, F. P., op. cit., p. 190. 

** Cf. Dexter, C. G., History of Education in the United States. New York, 
1904, p. 12. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 23 

willing, and ciphering, catechism and the prayers of the Re- 
formed Church were taught. Wherever a church was built, 
there in its shadow was the school. This parochial system was 
characterized by a distribution of control between Church and 
State. The church was granted the right to examine teachers, 
enforce the religious test, and make the appointments; the 
legal support was vested in the civil authorities.*' In the 
opinion of some historians of education, the parochial system 
of New Netherlands gave the principle of free universal educa- 
tion in our country.**^' With the contjuest of this colony by the 
English in 1G74, the parochial system was supplanted by the 
laissez faire method that prevailed in the southern colonies.*' 
After the English took possession of New York, the largest 
provision for elementary schools in the colony was made by the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 
which had been organized in England to promote Christian 
knowledge by erecting catechetical schools and diffusing the 
Scriptures and the liturgy of the Established Church. At the 
time of the Revolution, it maintained more than twenty schools 
in New York,** and bad spread to all the <i{her colonies except 
Virginia, where its work was not thought necessary. While 
discriminating against other denominations, it manifested 
great zeal in extending the education and religion oi' ll.e Estab- 
lished ChuT'ch in the colonies.*^ After 1750, on account of the 
bitter opposition of the colonists to the society, owing to its 
royalist sympathies, it abandoned its schools. In 180G the 
"Society for Establishing Free Schools in the City of Nev, 
York" was incorporated, and it founded the first free school 
for children who were not provided for by any religion or 
society, with the aim to inculcate the truths of religion and 
morality contained in Holy Scriptures.'" For more than thirty 



*' Cf . Ibid., p. 15; Graver, op. cit., 194. 

" Cf. Dexter, op. cit., p. 14; Draper, Andrew, "Public School Pioneering 
in New York and Massachusetts," Educatiotial Reviev; Vol. Ill, p. 314, 

« Cf. Graves, F. P., op. cit., pp. 194-95. 

« Cf. Boone, R. G., Education in the United States. New York, 1890, p. 53. 

« Cf. Graves, F. P., op. cit., pp. 235-36; Parker, S. C, The History of Modern 
Elementary Education. Boston, 1912, p. 228. 

" Cf. Parker, S. C, op. cit., pp. 243-45; Hall, A. J., Religions Education in 
the Public Schools of the State and City of New York. Chicago University, 
1914, pp. 22-40. 



24 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

years the society received funds from the State to carry on its 
worlv. During the same interval, and on the same grounds and 
for the same purpose, Hebrews, Presbyterians, Methodists, and 
Catholics applied to the legislature for funds. In 1842, after 
a controversy of twenty years, the legislature enacted a law 
to the effect that no portion of the school funds was to be given 
to any school in which religious sectarian doctrine should be 
taught. In 1853 the Public School Society transferred its 
property to the city Board of Education.^^ 

In colonial Pennsylvania, elementary education remained 
entirely in the hands of the church and neighborhood organiza 
tions, all actuated by religious motives. The second general 
assembly of the colony in 1683 passed a law requiring that all 
children be taught, so that at the age of twelve they could read 
the Scriptures and write. Owing to the conflicting religious 
interests of the cosmopolitan population, the law was nor 
enforced. The tolerant attitude of the Quaker government had 
attracted a great many religious immigrants. These included 
Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and others. 
In the eastern part of the State each denomination set up a 
school in connection with the church. The church school 
organization of Pennsylvania was similar, therefore, to that of 
New Netherlands, except that there were several parochial sys- 
tems instead of one. In the western part, where the population 
was more sparse and the communities were of a more hetero- 
geneous character, neighborhood schools were established by 
the cooperation and voluntary subscription of a few families. 
The parochial schools and the neighborhood schools continued 
in operation, and furnished nearly all the elementary education 
in Pennsylvania until 1834, when a state educational system 
was established.^^ That religion was a strong force in the lives 
of the people of the colony is evidenced by the opposition which 
they raised to this public school legislation. ''Several religious 
denominations, almost in a body, placed themselves in opposi- 
tion to the new law. The Catholics and the Episcopalians, who 
have in later years most favored parochial schools, were then 



"> Cf. Parker, p. 246. Cf. Hall, op. cit., p. 61; Laws of New York, 1842, pp. 
187, 188. 

62 Parker, S. C, op. cit., pp. 62, 63. Graves, P. P., op. cit., pp. 195, 262. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 25 

too weak and too much scattered to make effective opposition, 
if they were so disposed; but the Friends, the Lutherans, the 
Reformed, and the Mennonites, with many notable Low Church 
exceptions, wherever sufficiently numerous to form congrega- 
tions, very generally united in voting against the free school 
law and taxes for free schools. But what went hardest with 
most of them was to sever the tie that had bound them in one 
church and school, to divorce what, in their view, God had 
joined together, to secularize the school and be compelled to 
educate their children where they could receive no positive 
religious education.^^ The population of the two remaining 
middle colonies, New Jersey and Delaware, were cosmopolitan, 
and the same conditions obtained as in Pennsylvania. The 
parochial school was established by some of the denominations 
in those colonies, but the laissez faire method prevailed.^* 

Virginia stands as the type of the aristocratic colonies of the 
South, which reproduced, in a measure, the distinction of 
classes found in England. A marked division existed between 
the land owners and the masses, which included Indentured 
servants and other dependents. Accordingly, the means of 
education for each class differed. The classical secondary and 
higher education was provided for the upper classes, but there 
was very little elementary training, except in private dame 
schools and the catechetical training by the clergy. Besides 
these forms, there were the tutorial system, both elementary 
and secondary, for the children of the wealthy, and some form 
of the old English industrial training, through apprenticeship, 
for orphans and children of the poor,^^ Yet we infer from the 
legislation which is recorded on the statute books for 1G46 that 
there must have been a number of elementary schools in opera- 
tion in Virginia, or else that elementary training was common 
in the home : *'A11 overseers and guardians of such orphans are 
enjoined by the authority aforesaid to educate and instruct 
them according to their best endeavors in Christian religion and 
in rudiments of learning, and to provide for them necessaries 



" Wickersham, J. P., History of Education in Pennsylvania. Lancaster, 
1886, pp. 319, 320. 
" Cf. Graves, F. P., History of Education. New York, 1915, p. 103. 
« Cf. Ibid., p. 83. Parker, S. C, op. cit., p. 307. 



26 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

according to the competence of their estates."^*^ Fiske, writing 
of compulsory education, says : "There was, after 184G, a con- 
siderable amount of compulsory education in Virginia, much 
more than is generally supposed, since the records of it have 
been buried in the parish vestry books. In the eighteenth 
century we find evidences that pains were taken to educate 
colored people. In the 'old field schools' little more was taught 
than the three K's, but these humble institutions are not to be 
despised, for it was in one of them that George Washington 
learned to read, write, and cipher."^'^ In keeping with Englisln 
precedents, the children of the poor, w^ards, and oprhans were 
taught a trade by the masters to whom they were indentured. 
The nearest approach to the elementary school was the planta- 
tion "field school," founded by the voluntary cooperation of a 
group of neighbors and supported by tuition fees.^^ While the 
great majority of the children were attending denominational, 
private, and field schools, a system of subsidies was established 
by legislation in the literary fund for public education. This 
policy of subsidization was regarded as an effective means of 
educating public opinion for the promotion of schools.^^ 

In Maryland educational activity began in 1634. In Lord 
Baltimore's party were two Jesuit Fathers who started at once 
to teach the Indians. The bequests for the establishment and 
endowment of free schools point to the existence of such institu- 
tions where reading, writing, ciphering, and Christian Doctrine 
were taught.^" Catholic missionary and parochial schools have 
played an important part in the educational history of the 
State, the first of the former for the Indians having been estab- 
lished as early as 1677.^^ The persecution of the Catholics 
after 1689 closed their schools. An act of the legislature in 
1704 imposed upon Catholics w^ho should keep school or take 



*^ Clews, E. W., Educational Legislation and Administralion of the Colonial 
Governments. New York, 1899, p. 355. 

" Fiske, John, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, Vol. II. Boston, 1890, p. 
226. 

^Ct Graves. F. P., History of Ediicaiion. New York, 1915. d. 85. 

M Cf. Ibid., p. 88. 

*" Cf . Davis, G. L., The Day-star of American Freedom. New York, 1855, 
pp. 146-47. Neill, E. D.. The Fonndation of Martjland. Albanj', 1876, pp. 
91-97, 127-129. 

" Dexter. E. G., op. cit., p. 65. 



Pedagogical Value of Williugness 27 

upon themselves the education, government, or boarding of 
youth, the penalty of transportation to England." In 1696 a 
serious endeavor had been made by the colony to support 
schools in every county by direct taxation. Eight years later 
the fund was increased by a duty upon imports and exports. 
The plan, however, met with but little success before the 
Eevolution.*^^ 

South of Virginia there were no schools until after the begin 
ning of the eighteenth century. In the Carolinas during the 
first half of that century, schools of a religious uature were 
founded in connection with churches. In Georgia the principal 
educational efforts before the Eevolution were in the nature of 
mission schools for the Indians and a charitable school for 
orphans.^* It was the policy of the southern colonists to leave 
the elementary instruction to the family. Here, as in the 
middle colonies, the people, instead of gathering into towns, 
as those in New England were required by law to do, settled 
widely apart. "In the later colonial days^ it was common for 
southern gentlemen to send abroad for university educated men, 
who were duly installed as teachers in their families. At an 
earlier time, it was still more common in S(»ulhern states for 
heads of families to buy teachers in the market as the Romant 
bought them in the days of Cicero, such teachers being com- 
monly redempti oners, men vrho had sold their services for a 
term of yeai-s to a sliipmaster in payment for their transporta- 
tion to America, but sometimes, also, convicts who had been 
expatriated. It was common, too, in the South, aud in a less 
degree in the middle states, for leading families to send their 
sons abroad to be educated.""' Of the southern colonies Dr. 
lioone writes: "It cannot be said that any of the colonies were 
inditferent to education of any grade any more than they were 
to the claims of religion and individual honesty. But to some 
of them these were not matters of public control. It was not 



•2 Cf. Shea, J. G., History of the Catholic Chvrck in the United States. New 
York, 1886, Vol. I., p. 358. 

*' Cf. Dexter, op. cit., p. 65. Graves, History of Education. New York, 
1015, p. 89. 

" Cf. Dexter, op. cit., pp. 67-71. 

•* Hinsdale, B. A., Education in the United States, Monograph, No. 8, 1900 
p. 5. 



28 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

schools, but free schools which Governor Berkeley denounced. 
During his short administration he was more than once a gen- 
erous subscriber to funds for private academies — a policy of 
conduct entirely consistent with his own and the South's views 
concerning this means of education; consistent, too, with the 
practices of all the colonies, or parts of them at some period, 
even in New England.'"'® 

In the middle and southern colonies, education did not take 
on a strongly institutional form. Academies and grammar 
schools had no firm organization, and common schools were of 
a voluntary or parochial character. The geographic conditions 
made the foundation of a school system impossible. 

The third type of colonial school organization was that of 
governmental direction, as worked out in the schools of Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut. The colonial assembly of Massachu- 
setts in 1647 enacted a law requiring each town of fifty families 
under penalty of £5, to maintain an elementary school, and 
every town of a hundred families to maintain a grammar 
(secondary) school. These schools were to be supported by 
tuition fees or voluntary taxation, and only in case of a deficit 
should the town be taxed. This act of the Massachusetts Gen- 
eral Court may be considered the germ of all of our school 
legislation, and these schools the beginning of the present school 
system. According to Dr. Martin, the fundamental elements 
of the school laws of Massachusetts of 1642 and 1647 are the 
essential principles of our present State system.**^ Local inter- 
est in the maintenance of the schools was followed by a period 
of decline for a century and a half. The causes of the deca- 
dence were many. Two may be cited which have been noted as 
insuperable obstacles to an organized school system in the 
middle and southern colonies. These were: (1) The influx of 
various denominations, as Episcopalians, Quakers, and Bap- 
tists, which weakened the alliance of the State with an intol- 
erant church; (2) the dispersion of the population of the towns 
to frontier settlements."^ In 1789 the policy of divided schools, 



s^ Rooue, R., op. cit., pp. 59, 60. 

" Cf. Martin, G. H., The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System. 
New York, 1894, pp. 14, 15. 

^Ci. Graves, History of Education. New York, 1915, pp. 105, 106. Par- 
ker, op. cit., p. 25. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 29 

known as "district schools," was legalized ; this led to a coudi- 
tion in 1827 which "marks the culmination of a process which 
had been going on steadily for more than a century. It marks 
the utmost limit to the subdivision of American Sovereignty — 
the high-water mark of modern democracy, and the low-water 
mark of the Massachusetts school system.^'' 

The development of the schools of Massachusetts was typical 
of that of the schools of all New England, with the exception of 
Rhode Island. In 1650 the Hartford Colony passed a school 
law similar in details to the Massachusetts law of 1647.^° In 
1655 the law of the New Haven Colony provided that parents 
and masters should endeavor to teach children and apprentices 
"to be able duly to read the Scriptures and other good and 
profitable printed books in the English tongue, . . . and 
in some competent measure to understand the main grounds 
and principles of the Christian religion necessary to salva- 
tion."'^ In the eighteenth century Connecticut saw the same 
degeneracy of her district school system that Massachusetts 
had seen.^2 

Rhode Island was settled for the specific purpose of securiug 
the enjoyment of freedom of thought. School legislation would 
infringe upon this liberty, and, therefore, none was enacted for 
nearly two centuries. During the eighteenth century there 
were voluntary organizations to provide for ungraded schools 
for the poor. Samuel, writing in 1776, says: "As respects 
schools previous to 1770, they were but little thought of; there 
were in my neighborhood three small schools, perhaps about a 
dozen scholars each. Their books were the Bible, spelling-book, 
and primer."^^ Unsuccessful attempts were made in 1798 and 
in the following years to maintain at public expense one or 
more free schools in each town of the State. In 1828 a basal 
state law for common schools were passed.^* 

The founders of the schools in the colonies had the religious 



" Martin, op. cit., p. 92. 

'" Cf. Graves, History of Education. New York, 1915, p. 110. 
'1 Quoted by Dexter, op. cit., p. 45. 

'2 Cf. Ibid., p. 84, 85. Graves, A Student's History of Education, op. cit., 
p. 269. 

" Quoted in History of Education, Dexter, op. cit., p. 52. 

'* Cf. Ibid., p. 52. Graves, History of Education. New York, 1915, p. 112. 



30 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

purpose distinctly in view from the beginning. For more than 
a century and a half, religious instruction continued without 
interruption. The iext-books were essentially religious. In 
New England and in New York until 1750 the hornbook, the 
New England Primer, the Psalter, the New Testament, and the 
Bible were the only books used. The contents of the New 
England Primer show its religious character and purpose. Be- 
sides prayers and the Commandments, it consisted of forty 
pages of catechism. After 1750 the primer was replaced by a 
speller, not so religious in character, which, in addition to short 
readings and lists of words, contained a short catechism, the 
''necessary observations of a Christian."^^ 

In addition to the religious influence of the school in forming 
Use character of the youth in colonial days, there was the vital 
factor of home-training. The Southern boy was made to feel 
that one day he would have charge of his father's plantations. 
Accordingly, a sense of responsibility was cultivated in hinj, 
and experience in superintending affairs was required of him. 
He was encouraged to know the principles of politics and to 
take an interest in currents events, for he would one day take 
his place in public affairs. Thus conversant with the principles 
and details of public service and accustomed to direct, he was 
fitted for leadership when the Revolution came.^^ 

The New England boy was reared under strict discipline. 
Keligion was a dominating force in his daily life; there was 
prayer morning and evening and regular attendance at church 
on Sunday. He was taught a profound respect for his parents 
and teachers and a prompt obedience to their slightest direction. 
It was important that he should be kept busy every hour of the 
day. At school he should be diligent. Morning and evening he 
had his regular duties. Industry and honesty were preeminently 
cultivated. The youth might drive a sharp bargain, but rather 
than be guilty of fraud or deception he should suffer poverty. 
His environment, like that of the Southern boy, was favorable 
for forming the habit of initiative and self -direction. He hegnn 
early to see his relations to the other members of the family. 



75 Cf. Parker, op. cit., pp. 72-80. Hall, A. J., op. cit., pp. 26-30. 
7^ Cf. Wertenbaker, T. J., "Home and School Training in the South in the 
Colonial Period," National Educational Association Proceedings, 1906, p. 455. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 31 

He identified himself with the large interests of his home and 
his father's farm and all its fruits with the pride of 
a possessor/^ 

At the time of the Kevolution the schools became less religi 
ous. Though religious instruction was not directly affected, it 
fell into the background. The text-books were made less relijj^i 
ous. The New England Primer, used generally from the founda- 
tion of the first schools in the colonies, was replaced by the 
spelling book, which contained less religious instruction. The 
first was Dilworth's A New Guide to the English Tongue, pub- 
lished in 1740 and widely used for fifty years. After the Rev ; 
lution Webster's Blue Backed Speller, published in 1783, be 
came the most popular text-book for primary schools. Instead 
of praj'ers and the religious catechism which were found in the 
primers, its contents were of a miscellaneous character, con- 
sisting of unrelated phrases, sentences, and paragraphs; ilhis 
trated fables; and a moral catechism which discussed tbe vir- 
tues and vices, as humility, mercy, revenge, etc.^* Yet the 
somewhat religious and the dominantly moral character of the 
text-books in post-Revolutionary days testify to the religious 
temper of the time. Between 1800 and 1825 the change wax 
taking place. The ecclesiastical element was gradually elimi- 
nated from the text-books, and stories and anecdotes tending 
to point moral lessons took its place.'® Murray's English 
Reader, one of the most widely used readers in the early part of 
the nineteenth century, contained eighty-four prose selections 
in the first part of the book, of which fifty-four were distinctly 
moral, eighteen others religious, and the remaining had a moral 
or religious motive. The character of the contents points to the 
fact that moral training and character-building was not a 
theoretical aim of the schools, but that it was in the very center 
of the school consciousness, and, therefore, a very practical aim 
in education.^" 

The movement toward secularization was due to several 



" Cf. Brainerd, T., American Journal of Education, Vol. XVI., p. 335ff. 

" Cf. Parker, op. cit., pp. 80-83. Hall, op. cit., pp. 30-36. 

'* Cf. Mahoney, J. J., "Readers in the Good Old Days," Educational Review, 
Vol. 52, p. 217. 

^ Cf. Sisson, E. O., "An Educational Emergency," Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 
106. p. 59. 



32 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

causes. The intermingling of the various denominations, giving 
the school a heterogeneous character, made the teaching of 
religion by the state school difficult of adjustment. Opposition 
was raised to the teaching of any one creed. The new political 
conditions flowing from the independence of government had a 
tendency to bring about a separation of Church and State. The 
educational provision incorporated in the Constitutions of five 
of the thirteen original States at the time of their formation 
marks the transition and foreshadows the policy of the State 
to take exclusive charge of the public school and to make it a 
distinctly civil institution.®^ 

The laicization of the schools was the inevitable concomitant 
of the separation of Church and State. At the beginning of the 
nineteenth century, legislation began to evolve a secular aim 
for the schools. ''The new order was ushered in so gradually 
and easily that it is quite impossible to assign to it a definite 
date. The catechism, the minister as an authoritative religion.^ 
teacher, and the New England Primer, did not quit the schools 
at any specified time ; they were quitting them for a generation 
or more. The most significant fact in the long process is the 
Act of 1827, which declared that the school committees should 
never direct to be used or purchased in any of the town schools 
any school books which were calculated to favor the tenets of 
any particular sect of Christians."®^ 

In 1837 began the movement known as the Public School 
Revival, led by Horace Mann, who promoted the work of secu- 
larizing the schools. In order to build up a system of education, 
be contended for the principle of the exclusion of religious 
instruction — a principle which he considered essential to his 
aim. The sectarian issue became fundamental and universal, 
Mr. Mann issued twelve annual reports, by means of which he 
built up public opinion and influenced legislatures to join the 
movement for non-sectarian public schools. In his second 
report, in 1838, he adverts to the alarming deficiency of moral 
and religious instruction then found to exist in the schools, 
and adds further: "Deficiency in regard to religious instruc- 
tion could only be explained by supposing that school corn- 



el Cf. Draper, A., American Education. Boston, 1909, pp. 4, 5. 
" Hinsdale, B. A., Horace Mann. New York, 1898, pp. 211-12. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 33 

mittees, whose duty it is to prescribe school books, had not 
found any books at once expository of the doctrines of revealed 
religion and also free from such advocacy of the 'tenets' of 
particular sects of Christians as brought them, in their opinion, 
within the scope of the legal prohibition, ... Of course, 
I shall not be here understood as referring to the Scriptures, 
as it is well known that they are used in almost all the schools, 
either as a devotional or as a reading book."^^ Mr. Mann 
believed thoroughly in the moral value of education. He held, 
in fact, that education was the only force that could elevate 
character. He believed in the value of religion as a basis of 
morality, but to secure the centralization of schools, which 
would promote state supervision, and the uniformity of curric- 
ulum and text-books, the two conditions which he thought 
were demanded by considerations of efficiency, he urged the 
secularization of the American schools. In his tenth report 
he stated three propositions which, in his judgment, described 
the foundation which must underlie a permanent system of 
common schools. The second proposition reads as follows: 
"The property of this commonwealth is pledged for the educa- 
tion of all its youth up to such a point as will save them from 
poverty and vice and prepare them for the adequate perform- 
ance of their social and civil duties,"®* 

"The full tide of the secularization movement is seen in the 
legislation enacted from about 1850 on,''®^ Before this time 
there had been very little state legislation regarding religious 
instruction. About six states favored the religious element; 
the same number were opposed to it. Most of the civil enact- 
ments in regard to it were of a purely local nature. After 1850 
the state legislatures undertook the problem; their legislation 
was concerned not so much with repealing former enactments 
as in correcting current practices,®" "The aim of education as 
set forth in this later legislation was civic, industrial, profes- 
sional, not religious or ecclesiastical. Morality, character, 
knowledge, skill were emphasized, but to prepare leaders for 



•• Report of Commission of Education, 1894, p. 1635, 
" Hinsdale, B. A., op. cit., p. 177. 

" Brown, S. W., The Secularization of American Education. New York, 
1912, p. 56. 
»• Ibid., p. 57. 



34 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

the church, to supply a ministry, or to propagate the principles 
of the Christian religion no longer are mentioned as aims. 
Law schools, medical schools, normal schools, agricultural 
schools, and mechanical schools are rovided for, but no favor- 
able mention is made of schools or departments of theology ."^^ 

To summarize: The history of educational effort from the 
first colonial settlements to the secularization of the schools, 
which took place in the second quarter of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, may be divided into two periods: (1) The colonial period, 
ending in 1776, which was dominated thoroughly by the religi- 
ous aim and purpose of education. Most of the enactments 
making provision for religious instruction were prior to 1776. 
(2) The period of transition from 1776 to 1850, which was 
marked by a lowering of religious feeling, a growing spirit of 
religious toleration, and a development of material interests. 
There was little legislation bearing upon the subject of reli- 
gious instruction. During this period the middle Western 
States, rich in public lands, generously responded to the demand 
for educational funds. ^^ 

We have indicated the gradual development of the school 
system from its various beginnings by the colonists to fit the 
youth of the country to be good men, and, therefore, good citi- 
zens, to the time when the State took charge of the schools and 
supported them by general taxation. During this period of a 
century and more, the religious and moral elements of the 
schools were the supreme interests. With the elimination of 
the religious influence, it is clear, and will be increasingly 
clear, that some other force should be introduced in order to 
attain the educational purposes of the schools, which is the 
training of the youth of the land for citizenship. 



8' Ibid., p. 57. 

^ Cf. Brown, S. W., op. cit., p. 56. Graves, op. cit., A Student's History of 
Education. New York, 1915, p. 274. 



CHAPTER III 

THE SPECIFIC MEANS OF TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP IN THE 
SECULARIZED SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES 

Confidence in the moral value of intellectual education was 
the outcome of the philosophy of Enlightenment of the eight- 
eenth century. One of the fundamental principles of Eational- 
istic philosophy was that ignorance is the source of crime 
and that mere instruction is sufficient for moral education. 
It revived the Socratic principle that knowledge is virtue. 
The intellectual culture of the masses became the aim of 
the educational leaders, who thought that knowledge would 
prevent poverty, social evils, and all other vices. It w^as 
natural, therefore, that they should urge the adoption of the 
secularized school to replace the religious school, which, on 
account of the various denominations existing, presented diffi- 
culties of administration. It was thought sufficient that relig- 
ious education be given in the church and in the home. Intel- 
lectual education would prepare the youth for citizenship. 

With the growth of the state school, therefore, education 
became exclusively intellectual. Not that the moral aim was 
entirely lost sight of, but the great factors of attaining it, the 
development of appropriate feeling and the discipline of the 
will, were neglected, and whatever related to character was 
made informative and incidental. Between the belief of the 
educational leaders who still held the moral aim supreme, but 
who believed that moral betterment was bound up with intel- 
lectual training, and that view in which the moral values were 
obscured by the great emphasis placed upon knowledge, was 
not a fundamental distinction, and a great many of the teachers 
failed to make it. Promotion was made entirely on intellectual 
lines. The incorrigible youth was advanced to the next grade 
if he could write well, regardless of his lack of civic virtue, 
while the dull, faithful boy with shining civic virtues received 
only discouragement and was made to repeat his grade. All 
the discipline which should have been the means of lifting the 
youth into noble manhood was devised and applied to preserve 
order in the school room that the intellect might be cultivated. 

35 



36 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

The legislation of some of the States provided for moral 
training, but the law was ignored. The Bible was read in some 
schools. Beading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and geog- 
raphy were the staple subjects. Very little attention was given to 
United States history, and there were very few text-books on the 
subject. Goodrich's Child's First Book in History, published 
in 1834, his Gomyrehensive Geography and History, published 
in 1850, and Booth's Pictorial History of the United States 
with questions for schools — published in 1854 — none of them 
widely used — and Peter Parley's History of the World were the 
only school texts recorded until Anderson's History of the 
United States was published in 1860. The importance of moral 
education and its neglect were subjects frequently discussed by 
the boards of education, but that moral education should be 
given was unsuccessfully urged. There is no record of any 
serious attempt or systematic plan to teach morality, though 
there was a prevailing dissatisfaction with the lack of ethical 
training, of which the following is a typical instance : ''Since, 
contrary to law, the moral education of the young in our schools 
has been neglected so as to produce widespread dissatisfaction 
and complaint, what are the remedies Ave should apply? In 
lectures delivered, addresses made, resolutions passed, in meet- 
ings on education, instead of intellectual instruction being 
exclusively pressed on the attention, let this subject be dis- 
tinctly presented and receive the notice that its paramount 
importance demands."^^ The curriculum was organized on a 
purely intellectual basis to furnish the mind with facts and to 
train it to logical thinking. The emotional life, a rich posses- 
sion and a potent means of reaching the will, and the training 
of the will itself, was almost wholly disregarded. 

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the necessity of 
education as a preparation for citizenship was not distinctly 
felt.^" The population was largely rural, and the ordinary man 
learned the machinery of government as far as he needed to use 
it by active participation in it. The ''town meeting" was the 
center for political fellowship essential to keeping the civic 
bond among the citizens. After the great immigration from 



« First Report of the Board of Education of Maine, 1847, p. 84. 
•« Brown, S. W., op. cit., p. 56. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 37 

Europe which bej^an with the European revolutionary move- 
ments in the middle of the nineteenth century, there was a large 
population that knew nothing of our Government. Such a situa- 
tion caused thoughtful men to cast about for some agency in the 
educational system to teach citizenship. It was in 1859 that 
the first plea for instruction in civil government in the school 
was made before the National Educational Association.'^ This 
first note for specific training in citizenship was sounded by 
Daniel Reed. *'At the national convention of teachers at the 
Smithsonian Institute, Prof. Daniel Reed, of the University of 
Wisconsin, delivered a well-timed and judicious address, whose 
object was to inquire into the competency of the American 
people to govern themselves, and in its course ... he 
alluded to the growth of large cities, the inroads of luxury, and 
the great delusion that popular government, merely in and of 
itself, is enough to save our nation and its liberties. In this 
view he strongly advocated the addition of constitutional 
studies to the usual school studies.'"'- Other petitions for civic 
instruction were made about this time. The appeals were con- 
sidered favorably, and the recognition of the need of such in- 
struction became widespread. The movement began with the 
study of the text of the Constitution of the United States. A 
copy of this document was appended to the United States his- 
ories which had been introduced into the schools,^^ and the 
pupils were required to memorize it. Somewhat laterfl separate 
small texts were written, and these took the Constitution, clause 
by clause, with brief explanations. No consideration was given 
to state and city government.^* The idea continued to prevail 
among educators that ethical values consisted in the analysis 
of social relations, affording insight into the structure and 
working of society. The great majority of teachers were entirely 
occupied with the intellectual aims to the neglect of the ethical 
training. In 187U the Annual Report of the Board of Education 
of Rhode Island on Moral Training states: ''The most im- 
portant part of all education is too often neglected amid the 



'1 Cf. Sullivan, James, Report of Association of History Teachers of Middlt 
States and Maryland, 1913, p. 48. 

'* The Washington National Intelligencer, August 11, 1859. 

" Cf. Anderson's History of the United States. New York, 1860. 

»< Cf. Sullivan, J., op. cit., p. 30. 



38 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

daily cares. Too much reliance is placed upon instruction else- 
where, forgetting that it is precept upon precept, given every- 
where and rendered in every condition in which the child is 
placed in the changing circumstances amidst which he is 
thrown, that the training of the child to righteousness and holi- 
ness must be carried forward. The committee would urge upon 
the teachers a more earnest attention to this important mat- 
ter."^5 

In 1875, at the National Educational Association, severe 
criticism was made upon the purely intellectual aims that had 
given direction to the educational energies of the schools. 
Granted that the public schools were to train for citizenship 
and that good citizenship demanded fullness of manhood, how 
would men of integrity be formed, it was asked, without the 
cultivation of conscience? The most stupendous problem to 
face was how to educate the youth for the good of the State 
while the State was careless of moral instruction.^^ 

That the leading educational thinkers, however, placed very 
little emphasis upon the moral element in education is evi- 
denced by the almost total absence of that subject from the 
reports of the educational discussions of those years. Two 
instances will illustrate this point.. The Eeport of the Com- 
mittee of Ten, made in 1893, pursuant to the direction of the 
National Educational Association, is recognized universally as 
the most important educational document ever issued in the 
United States.^^ Its original committee included among its 
members. Dr. C. W. Eliot, chairman ; Dr. W. T. Harris, and Dr. 
J. B. Angell. This committee organized conferences on the 
following subjects : Latin, Greek ; English ; other Modern Lan- 
guages; Mathematics; Physics; Astronomy and Chemistry; 
Natural History (Biology, including Botany, Zoology, and 
Physiology) ; History, Civil Government and Political Economy ; 
Geography (Physical Geography, Geology, and Meteorology). 
They appointed for each of these nine subjects a subcommittee 



9^ Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Board of Education of Rhode Island, 
1870, p. 36. 

»» Cf. Magoun, G. F., "Relation and Duties of Education to Crime," Na- 
tional Educational Association Proceedings, 1875, p. 121. 

" Cf. Calkins, N. A., "Prefatory Note," Report of the Committee of Ten oti 
Secondary Studies, p. 111. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 39 

of ten members to meet in conference and to make a report and 
specific recomniendations concerning the selection of topics in 
each subject, the best methods of instruction, and the desirable 
appliances or apparatus, and, as far as practicable, the allot- 
ment of time to each subject. One hundred expert educators 
addressed themselves to the task of issuing a report dealing 
with all the aspects of the secondary schools.^^ In this report 
of two hundred and forty-nine pages there is a very meager 
reference to the vital subject of moral training. The few scat- 
tered sentences bearing upon this question, both directly and 
indirectly, would not occupy more than three or four pages. 
In the treatment of the teaching of English no reference was 
made to the opportunity offered for inspiring with high ideals. 
The report of thirty-eight pages on history, civil government, 
and political economy contained slight references which might 
be grouped on a page. Perhaps the strongest statement made 
was : "Another very important object of historical teaching is 
moral training," which received no amplification, and in the 
summary of purposes of historical study was entirely for- 
gotten.^'' With the exception of a slight reference to the possi- 
bilities of emotional and volitional training in one of the minor- 
ity reports,"" the great subject of character-formation was not 
so much as spoken of in the report. This fact is all the more 
remarkable, as the Committee of Ten stated expressly that the 
secondary education was not for the jjurpose of preparing boys 
and girls for colleges, but to prepare for the duties of life."^ 
The supreme and practically the only aim recognized was the 
training of the powers of observation, memory, expression, and 
reasoning."^ 

The report of the Committee of Fifteen dealing with the 
value of correlation of studies in the elementary curriculum, 
supplementing the Report of the Committee of Ten, was issued 
in 1895. It was the work of five educators of national eminence, 
of whom Dr. W. T. Harris, the chairman, wrote the body of the 



^^ Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Stitdies. Chicago, 
1894, pp. 4, 5, 13. 

99 Cf. ibid., p. 170. 

100 Cf . ibid., p. 57. 

101 Cf. ibid., p. 51. 
io» Cf. ibid., p. 52. 



40 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

report. He named grammar, literature, arithmetic, geography 
and history as the staple subjects,^°^ and mentioned other 
branches, as vocal music, drawing, manual training and others 
which could lay claim to a place on the program; last of all, 
"instruction in morals and manners which ought to be given 
in a brief series of lessons each year with a view to build in the 
mind a theory of the conventionalities of polite and pure- 
minded society." Then as if conscious of the lack of provision 
for moral education and of the insistent need of it, the writer 
added, "the higher moral qualities of truth-telling and sin- 
cerity are taught in every class exercise that lays stress on 
accuracy of statement."^"* The recommendations concerning 
the teaching of each subject make no reference to moral train- 
ing, nor does the program for the eight years of the course 
give any place even to the "brief series of lessons" to teach the 
conventionalities of society. 

Since the secularization of the schools had taken place, 
society had grown in complexity of structure and operation 
and the demaiids upon man's moral strength were becoming 
greater. In 1888, thinking men observed that the spirit of 
loyalty and devotion which had been fostered by the Civil 
War was giving place to political corruption. The dishonest 
municipal administration, the party politics in the hands of 
spoilsmen, the monopolies and the conflict between capital and 
labor were becoming a menace to the stability of the country.^"'* 

When the people realized that the vital question of the 
country was how to check the grasping private interests that 
were flourishing at the expense of the common good, they 
looked to the schools as the effective agency to arrest the evil, 
recommending that patriotism be taught. The more the atten- 
tion was directed to the training in citizenship which the 
schools should give, the more apparent was the prevailing 
neglect of this aspect of education. 



lo^ Cf. Report on Correlation of Studies by Committee of Fifteen. Blooming- 
ton, 1895, p. 37. 

1" Cf. ibid., p. 43. 

los Cf. Baldwin, J., "The Culture Most Valuable for Educating Law-abiding 
and Law-respecting Citizens," National Educational Association Proceedingt, 
1888, pp. Ill, 112. Cf. Sheldon, W. E., ibid., "Discussion," p. 157. Cf. 
Preston, J., "Teaching Patriotism," National Educational Association Pro- 
ceedings, 1891, pp. 102, 103, 109. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 41 

Signs of the movement of conscious and purposeful training 

in citizenship, not always fruitful in its results, came to notice 

about the year 1890. Since that time various methods have 

been employed which may be classified under the captions : 

I. The Teaching of Emotional Patriotism. 

II. School Organizations, especially the School City and 

School Kepublic. 
III. Civics Courses. 
IV. Community Civics. 

/. The Teaching of Emotional Patriotism 

The teachers were urged to cultivate patriotism, and to 
arouse the youth of the school to an appreciation of their 
national heritage of a free government and their correlative 
duty of loyalty. By inspection of the schools of New York 
City in 1888, it was discovered that there was an almost total 
lack of patriotic sentiment even among American children.^^' 
To overcome this general inditference it was decided that sys- 
tematic means of teaching patriotism should be devised. The 
president of the New York Board of Education suggested that 
national flags and the portraits of Washington and Lincoln be 
presented to the schools and that instruction in patriotism be 
made an integral part of the curriculum. Accordingly, morn- 
ing exercises of a formal patriotic nature were introduced and 
daily observed, during which the American flag was displayed 
in front of the assembled school.^*^^ The ceremony of saluting 
the flag and pronouncing the oath of allegiance to it became 
popular and widespread. The commemoration of significant 
events in our national history, as Memorial Day, an<l Patriots' 
Day, and of the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln ; lessons 
in history and biography; the singing of national hymns; the 
memorizing and rendering of patriotic masterpieces were other 
features of this system. Colonel Balch of New York City 
devised an elaborate method of making the flag the reward of 
good conduct, thereby recognizing the essential character of 



"* Cf. Baldwin, J., op. cit.. National Educational Association Proceedings, 
1888. p. 111. 

1" Cf. Balch. G. B., Methods of Teaching Patriotism. New York, 1890. pp 
12-60. 



42 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

citizenship. According to his plan, the flag should be con- 
ferred, (1) as a badge upon the student of each class excelling 
the rest of his class in good conduct, to be worn as a sign of 
his fitness for citizenship; (2) as a class flag, to be displayed 
in the room of the class which had excelled during the pre- 
ceding week in punctuality and conduct. The class flag, borne 
by the standard-bearer, should be presented to the assembled 
school and the pupils should salute it with ceremony. His 
plan included a number of ingenious devices adding solemnity 
to the exercise in order to move the children to reverence the 
flag. 

A feature of this effort to revive patriotism was the general 
interest manifested by the legislators in the display of the flag 
from school buildings. In 1889 the legislatures of Pennsylvania 
and Wisconsin authorized the school boards of those States to 
purchase national flags; the legislature of New York took similar 
action in 1890 ;"^ flag-law became operative in Illinois in 1895, 
requiring, under penalty, that the flag should float from every 
school-house from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m., when school was in ses- 
sion. The Massachusetts flag-law was passed in the same 
year;^°^ that of Ohio, in 1896;^^° the other States adopted similar 
flag measures during this time. 

The observance of Flag Day, June 14, was inaugurated in 
1890 by the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American 
Eevolution.^^^ The first recognition of the day by the New 
York schools was on June 14, 1889, when Prof. G. B. Balch, 
head of a free kindergarten for the poor, established the custom, 
after which it was adopted by the board of education."^ The 
day was first recognized by the State when, at the request of the 
Sons of the Eevolution, the governor of New York ordered the 
flag raised on all public buildings in the State, June 14, 1894."^ 

A new impetus to the teaching of patriotism was given when 
the movement was begun to observe Peace Day on May 18, in 



>o8 Cf. Balch, G. B., op. cit., pp. 65, 66, 68. 

1™ Cf. Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1895, Vol. II, p. 1652. 
110 Cf. Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1901, Vol. I, p. 157. 
"1 Cf. Sons of American Revolution Historical Papers, No. 5, 1902, p. 6. 
"2 Cf. Walsh, W. S., Curiosities of Popular Custom. Philadelphia, 1898, 
433. 
' 113 Cf . Schauffler, R. H., Flag Day. New York, 1912, p. 7. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 43 

commemoration of the opening of the First World Congress 
in 1899 in the interests of international peace. It aimed to 
stimulate the cultivation of the sentiments of justice and 
peace. The schools in twelve States had made it a patriotic 
function when, in 1907, the state superintendents at their 
annual convention recommended to all schools the observance 
of the anniversary of the First Hague Congress."* 

The efforts to teach patriotism did not attain the desired 
results. In a great many schools the majority of the pupils are 
of foreign birth or parentage. In the city of Chicago more 
than two-thirds of the pupils are of that class; twenty-six 
nationalities make up its complex school population."^ The 
population of many other cities is not less complex. The 
supreme aim seems to have been to Americanize or to dena- 
tionalize these pupils as quickly as possible and, in the process, 
fundamentals have been overlooked. In the zeal to teach the 
child patriotism and to inoculate him with American ideals, 
the school has given him the wrong attitude toward his national 
traditions and often toward his parents, so that he may have 
even contempt for their dress, habits, language, and belief."** 
Once the child loses respect for his parent, the ground for 
character-building is cut from under his feet, and lessons in 
patriotism are useless. The children of immigrants often 
become interpreters of American ways to their parents and 
grow up without training because the family relationships 
have been reversed."^ A primary essential in the training of 
children of both immigrant and native parents is a deep respect 
and affection for their parents. The process of reducing at 
once the children of foreign extraction to one amalgam in 
the smelting pot of races makes too abrupt the breaking of 
family traditions. The consciousness that a child has a 
family history worth preserving is a potent influence inspiring 
him to bear himself worthily."* 

"* Cf. Mead, L. A., Patriotism and Peace. Boston, 1910, p. 21. 

^'^ Cf. Abbott, G., "The Education of Foreigners in American Citizenship," 
National Municipal League, Buffalo Conference, 1910, p. 374. 

"^ Cf. Dewey, J.. "The School as a Center of Social Life," National Educa- 
tional Association Proceedings, 1902, p. 377. 

"' Cf. Abbott, G., op. cit., p. 375. 

"« Cf. Hall, G. S., Educational Problems, Vol. I., p. 338. Dewey, J., op. cit., 
p. 375. 



44 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

The civic pageant is a positive illustration and an effective 
means of preserving the ancestral traditions of each nationality 
and at the same time of fusing all races into one whole, thus 
cultivating true civic consciousness. A great many of our 
cities have presented such pageants. The school children have 
participated, impersonating the human history of the neigh- 
borhood, beginning with the Indians and ending with the rise 
of the school-house; then the nationalities, varying in number 
with the complexity of the population, each contributing a 
spectacle of something worthy in its national life.^" The civic 
pageant is a distinct contribution to the forming of civic con- 
sciousness by removing race prejudice and invoking the interest 
of the entire community, including every nationality and color. 

At the convention of the National Educational Association 
in 1905 it was stated that the attempts at teaching patriotism 
were ineffective and that more vital training was needed : "Our 
instruction in civics is largely a sham. It is so much easier 
to teach the oath of allegiance to the flag than to teach a 
community to keep the fire escapes free from encumbrances. 
It is more interesting to prepare a program for patriotic cele- 
bration than to secure from a tenement-house population a 
respect for house laws. It is so much easier to teach children 
to wave small flags while singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" 
than to teach them to separate the ashes from the garbage, as 
is required in large cities. It is because we do not teach the 
important city ordinances and the reasons underlying them 
that the violation of laws is so common."^-" At the same con- 
vention the following significant resolution was adopted : "The 
association regrets the revival in some quarters of the idea 
that the common school is to teach nothing but the three R's 
and spelling, and takes this occasion to declare that the ulti- 
mate object of popular education is to teach children to live 
righteously, healthily, and happily, and to accomplish this 
object it is essential that every school inculcate love of truth, 
justice, purity, and beauty through study of biography, history, 
ethics, natural history, music, drawing, and manual arts."^^^ 



u9 cf "Pageant of the Nations," Survey, 1914, Vol. 32, pp. 209-10. 
1^" Richman, J., "The Immigrant Child," National Educational Association 
Proceedings, 1905, p. 117. 
^'^Ibid., p. 43. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 45 

//. School Organizations 

Student organisations have been regarded a valuable means 
of developing social relationships and, therefore, of preparing 
for citizenship. These clubs exist in some form of student 
activities in every school and they have been utilized to a 
greater or less degree by teachers as self-directed groups to 
develop initiative and responsibility in the members for the 
welfare of the group. ''The school and college fraternities and 
teams should be fore-schools of citizenship, cultivating its basal 
virtues."^^^ 

Student government has been adopted in a number of schools 
to cultivate self-control, personal responsibility, and social 
conscience. The scheme as it has been worked out varies widely 
in elaborateness and in the points which fall within the range 
of pupil government. In the college, cheating in examination 
is often the only matter dealt with. In the high school, other 
questions of school discipline are considered. In the grades, 
every civic duty and even matters of personal morality are 
included. It is conceded by some that pupil government can 
be successfully carried out in the sixth, seventh, and eighth 
grades. Pupil organization to cultivate community spirit and 
to give an insight into civic life has been tried in many schools. 
A typical instance obtains in the Horace Mann School, in New 
York City, introduced eight or nine years ago. Each grade 
above the third elects a delegate to the Horace Mann Asso- 
ciation, a kind of school parliament elected to deal with afifairs 
concerning all the student activities. The supervision of the 
recess periods in the elementary school is also a function of 
student government in this school. The teachers recommend 
it because it secures the cooperation of the students.^^^ 

The children in the lower grades in the schools of Boston, 
under the direction of Dr. Colin Scott, form themselves into 
spontaneous groups on the basis of mutual attraction to cook, 
sew, model in clay, dramatize plays, etc., one class forming as 
many as fourteen groups, which he seeks to utilize in culti- 
vating the spirit of cooperation. He allows three-quarters of 



"> Hall. G. S., Educational Problemt, op. cit.. Vol. II, p. 674. 
•*' Reply of the principal to questionnaire. 



46 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

an hour a day for group work and looks rather to the social 
and moral effect of the organization than to the artistic per- 
fection of the work. The chief aim is to develop the group 
bond upon that as a basis, to cultivate loyalty to one another, 
and to promote the sense of honor and of responsibility.^^* 

The Good Citizens' Clubs have been organized in the schools 
of New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and many other cities 
to arouse the pupils to the ideal of service which they should 
render in some measure in return for what the community 
does for them. The Good Citizen Club of the Pierce School, 
Brookline, Mass., founded in 1906, is typical of these organiza- 
tions. It consists of fifty-two members; two boys and two 
girls of each of the thirteen grammar schools of the city are 
chosen, each set by the members of their own school. Only 
pupils with a clear record can be candidates. The boys keep 
the streets free from littered paper and rubbish; they make 
school gardens; the members of the manual training class 
contribute the products of their skill to the school. The girls 
are helpful to the teachers in preparing illustrative material 
for class, etc. To maintain interest, meetings of the Good 
Citizen Club are held weekly, at which reports of the preceding 
week are given.^^^ This organization has been in existence for 
more than ten years and is at present doing systematic work.^^'^ 

An elaborate form of self-government in the grades was 
conceived and developed by Bernard Cronson in Manhattan 
School, No. 135, New York City. In 1902 he organized the 
four upper grades of 400 Italian children into a city, of which 
each class was a borough. A constitution and by-laws were 
adopted and governmental functions were borrowed from city 
administration. The boys made out and audited financial 
reports, mapped out imaginary cities with parks and with 
fire, health and police departments. His plan was especially 
successful in overcoming the habit of truancy, and in creating 
an interest in the study of history and of social and civil insti- 



12^ Cf. Scott, Colin, Social Education. Boston, 1908, pp. 114-170. 
1" Cf. McSkimmon, M., American Institute of Instructors Proceedings, 1908, 
p. 264 ff. 

12^ McSkimmon, M., Reply to questionnaire. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 47 

tutions."'^ At Mr. Cronson's death, his plan of self-government 
in the Manhattan School, No. 135, was abandoned. ^^^ 

The most widely known experiment in student-government 
is the school city or school republic, founded in 1897 by Mr. 
Wilson Gill, of Philadelphia. The distinct purpose of the 
school city is to train in citizenship.^-^ The method combines 
the objective method of teaching civics with student-govern- 
ment, both in principle and in details. Because the school city 
places the discipline of the school in the hands of the pupils 
supervised by the principal, and because the author aims to 
develop his purpose through self-government, it is properly 
classified under student organizations. Mr. Gill saw the cor- 
ruption among men interested in local government and the 
lack of interest in another large class of otherwise good men. 
To overcome the active selfishness of the first class and the 
apathy of the second, he formulated the plan of the school 
city, it consists in organizing each school as a self-governing 
community, all the members of which are citizens, and consti- 
tute a miniature city; this city is governed by oificials elected 
by the citizens from among themselves. The principal grants 
a charter, incorporating the school into a municipality. Each 
room is organized into a city ward. The citizens elect a mayor ; 
a city council consisting of boys and girls, one from each 
room; three judges; a sheriff and other officials. The mayor 
appoints, and the council confirms the appointments of com- 
missioners of health, public works, police, and other depart- 
ments. When the unit of organization is the State and eacli 
room constitutes a city, the system is known as the school 
republic.^^° 

The plan of the school city is based upon three principles: 
First, that the individual's success in life depends upon his 
willingness to cooperate with others; second, that, with the 
opportunity, the individual rises to responsibility; third, that 
citizenship is an art, which to be learned must be practiced. 
The advocates of the system emphasize its possibilities to 



1" Cf. Cronson, B., Student Government. New York, 1907, p. 107 ff. 
'** Letter of the present principal to the writer. 

«» Cf. Gill, Wilson, The New Citizenship. Philadelphia. 1913, p. 670. 
"o Cf. Gill, Wilson, op. cit., p. 53 ff. 



48 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

develop in the school the spirit of democracy in contrast to 
the spirit of monarchy suggested by the government of the 
teacher; to cultivate in the pupils the sense of responsibility 
in civic affairs by their performance of the important local 
civic duties; and to give them an appreciation of the sanctity 
of the law, the majesty of which they are charged with main- 
taining.^^^ 

The school city was first given a trial in a disorderly vaca- 
tion school of 1,100 children between 5 and 15 years of age in 
New York City. Within a week after the pupils were organized 
as a city, the school became orderly and law-abiding.^^^ The 
plan has been introduced into several schools with varying 
results. In the Normal school, New Paltz, New York ; the Hyde 
Park High School, Chicago ; in some of the grade schools in New 
York City, and in Syracuse, New York ; and in approximately 
thirty grade schools in Philadelphia it was tried."^ In most 
of these schools it has been discontinued.^^* At present, it 
obtains in its pure form in a very few schools in New York 
City ; in a modified form, containing some of the essentials of 
pupil government, it finds place in about fifty schools of New 
York City and immediately contiguous New Jersey towns.^^^ 
It was introduced in April, 1916, into the Wendell Phillips 
School, Boston. Dr. Snedden, when commissioner of educa- 
tion in Massachusetts, spoke in favor of the school city and its 
underlying principles, although he did not advocate the par- 
ticular method of working them out.^^'^ 

The great majority of educators regard the paternal form 
of government that obtains in the schools generally as the best 
to attain the school aims. While the training of pupils in self- 
government is one of the purposes of the school, it can scarcely 
be accomplished in such a thoroughgoing system as that of 
the school city, which for its own successful working needs a 
surveillance by the school authorities sufficient to annul its 
self-government elements. "The term 'self-government' has 



"1 Cf. ibid., pp. 178-191. 

"» Cf. Outlook, Vol. 80, p. 947. 

1" Cf. Gill, Wilson, op. cit., pp. 205, 216. 

"♦Replies to writer's questionnaire. 

i3» Welling, R., Reply to questionnaire. 

"* Personal letter to the writer. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 4fl 

often been a misleading one in educational discussions. It has 
frequently been used to signify self-control, either in the indi- 
vidualistic sense, or as the self -direction of groups without 
outside compulsion. In either of these interpretations, self- 
control, which is essential to all high social development, goen 
far beyond the requirements of government. What is really 
needed in our schools as a preparation for democracy and on 
highly differentiated society is not self-government, but self 
control and the self-direction of groups."^^^ 

The sharpest criticism made upon the school city is its 
unnaturalness. In treating the child as a replica of the adulr. 
the principles of genetic psychology have been overlooke<l. 
The child is as immature psychologically as he is physio- 
logically. The school city appeals to emotions and to a degree 
of intelligence in him which do not exist. The school shou]<l 
furnish an environment suitable to his present growing condi- 
tions. "Partly embryonic from a physiological standpoini. 
they [children] are still more so from a social one. Schools 
are social embryos. They cannot be little states modeled aflor 
that of adults."^^^ The child is living as actually during th«> 
school years as he will live in adult life. The principle of 
adaptation should be one of the teacher's great working prin- 
ciples, according to which she shapes the school activities to 
the present stage of the child's physical, mental, moral, and 
spiritual life. 

Moreover, a highly organized self-government tends to over- 
socialize children in two respects. It effaces individuality 
inasmuch as it tends to make them think in groups, and it 
deprives them of that training in submission to authority 
which is the basis of trust and loyalty. Children are hero 
worshippers, and it is natural for them to obey commands 
and to follow leaders, rather than to bear the responsibility 
of governing a group.^^® Playground activities may be profit- 
ably turned to develop helpful cooperation among pupils, 
which is an essential element of citizenship. The literary, 
debating, musical, and art clubs, which are features of school 
life, are also means of securing this important educational end. 



'" Scott, Colin, op. cif., p. 75. 
1'* Scott, Colin, op. cit., p. 71. 
"9 Cf. Hall, G. S., op. cit.. Vol. I., p. 306-S09. 



50 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

III. The Study of Civics as a Preparation for Citizenship 

The need of studying civics as a preparation for citizenship 
was recognized more than fifty years ago,"° but was not 
emphasized. At the convention of the National Educational 
Association in 1889 there was given a report of a questionnaire 
that had been circulated among the state superintendents, 
asking their opinion of the advisability of making civil govern- 
ment a required subject of the curriculum. The report stated 
that of the total number of thirty-eight superintendents, thirty- 
five had answered; of these, twenty favored the study, fourteen 
were noncommittal and one preferred music and drawing.^*^ 
The legislatures of ten states required the subject taught. In 
order to see what this subject has contributed to the work of 
training for citizenship it will be necessary to trace its growth 
in the schools. 

Educational practice rarely exceeds the guidance of scientific 
theory. From the recommendations of the National Educa- 
tional committees for the teaching of civil government may 
be learned the aim and maximum scope of the subject at that 
time. The first stimulus given the study was the Eeport of the 
Committee of Ten in 1893. The Conference on History, Civil 
Government, and Political Economy passed the resolutions: 
"That civil government in the grammar schools should be 
taught by oral lessons, with the use of collateral text-books, 
and in connection with United States History and local 
geography. 

''That civil government in the high schools should be taught 
by using a text-book as a basis, with collateral reading and 
topical work, and observation and instruction in the govern- 
ment of the city or town and State in which the pupils live, 
and with comparisons between American and foreign systems 
of government.""- 

The Report of the Committee of Fifteen submitted in 1895 
stressed the subject of history as the special branch fitted to 
furnish preparation for the duties of citizenship, inasmuch as 



1*" Cf. p. 37, svpra. 

"1 Cf . Donnan, L., ' 'The High School and the Citiaens," National Educa- 
tional Association Proceedings, 1889, pp. 513-14. 

1" Report of Committee of Ten, op. cit., p. 165. Cf. ibid., pp. 180, 181. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 51 

it gives as a basis the sense of belonging to the corporate civil 
body, v^^hich possesses the right of control over person and 
property in the interests of the whole. This sense of the 
solidarity of the State, it maintained, is the basis of citizen- 
ship."^ The Committee recommended the study of the Outlines 
of the Constitutions for ten or fifteen weeks in the eighth grade 
to fix the ideas of the threefoldness of the Constitution, to give 
an idea of the mode of filling the offices of the three depart- 
ments and the character of the duties with which each depart- 
ment is charged. To do this was to lay the foundation for an 
intelligent citizenship."* 

The Committee of Seven of the American History Associa- 
tion in 1899 recommended that history and civil government 
be studied together as one subject with the hope of attaining 
better results than by studying each separately."^ In 1908, 
nine years afterwards, the Committee on the instruction of 
government, appointed by the American Political Science Asso- 
ciation, rendered a report heralding a new note which marked 
the beginning of a new epoch in the teaching of civics. U 
recommended that the study of simple organs and func 
tions of local government be introduced into the grades, be- 
ginning not later than the fifth year. In the eighth grade, 
formal instruction in local, state, and national government 
should be given during one-half year, using an elementary 
text. A course in government should be given also in the high 
school."^ Prior to this date civics had not been taught in the 
intermediate grades except in an occasional grade school, as 
in some of the Chicago schools, where the syllabus of Mr. H. 
W, Thurston, then of the Chicago Normal College, had been 
introduced."^ This report, therefore, was the first official 
recommendation of a course in concrete civics in the inter- 
mediate grades of the elementary schools. 

These facts regarding the teaching of civics from 1892 to 



1" Cf. Report on the Correlation of Studies by the Committee of Fifteen, op. 
cit., p. 33. 

1" Cf. ibid., pp. 36, 37. 

1** Cf . Report of American Historical Association, 1899, p. 81. 

1" Cf. American Political Science Association Proceedings, 1908, pp. 250, 251. 

I" Cf . Fairlee, J. A.. "Instruction in Municipal Government," National 
Municipal League, Detroit Conference, 1903, p. 224. 



52 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

1908 show that while the machinery of government had been 
widely taught, it had not become a live subject. The Committee 
of Ten in 1893 reported that civil government was pursued in 
not more than one-sixth of the grammar schools which had 
come under its observation ; about one-third of the high schools 
offered some instruction in that subject.^*^ At the annual con- 
vention of the National Municipal League, 1903, the following 
report of an investigation into how far the instruction for 
citizenship prevailed in the public school was submitted. "In 
the Middle West one-sixth of the public schools give no work 
in civil government; one-fourth of the North Atlantic and 
far Western States neglect it. At least one city of 100,000 
population gives no work in civil government in any school.'"*'* 
No adequate instruction in municipal government had been 
given. An investigation of fifty of the most important cities 
had been made, and answers had been received from thirty 
three; ten had reported nothing doing; ten, something done; 
thirteen, reasonably good work. Some large cities were using 
text-books with nothing more than an analysis of the Federal 
Constitution. The best work had been done by Boston, Cleve- 
land and Detroit.^^" 

The subject of civics during the first years of the present 
century was by no means widely studied in the high schools. 
The following figures show what per cent of the entire enroll- 
ment of students of the high schools took the course in civics 
between the years 1897-8 and 1905-6, inclusive. 

Course in Civics in Secondary Schools 

Year '97-8 '98-9 '99-00 '00-01 01-02 02-03 '03-04 '04-05 '05-06 

Per cent of 

students 22.74 21.97 21.66 20.97 20.15 19.85 18. 76 17. 97 17, 48'»i 

During the nine years of which data were furnished, an 
average of not more than 20 per cent of the entire student body 
studied civics. It is a significant fact that the per cent de- 
creased each year. Some explanation of the backward state of 
instruction in civil government may be found in the slight 
attention given to the subject by educational associations. For 



"* Cf. Report of the Committee of Ten, op. cit., p. 179. 

"> Fairlee, J. A., ibid., p. 224. 

iw Cf. Fairlee, J. A., ibid., pp. 224-25. 

"^ Cf . Report of Commissioner of Education, 1907, Vol. II, p. 1057. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 53 

ten jeais, from 1892 to 1902, it had received no consideration 
at the conventions of the National Educational Associations. 
During that time the teaching of civil government was sub- 
ordinated to that of history. In 1908 there were large cities 
where American government was not taught in the high 
school.^'^ 

At the annual convention of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation in 1907 it was resolved that "It is the duty of teachers 
to enter at once upon a systematic course of instruction, which 
shall embrace not only a broader patriotism, but a more ex- 
tended course of moral instruction, especially in regard to the 
rights and duties of citizenship, the right of property, and the 
security and sacredness of human life."^*^ As a result of this 
resolution and the agitation which gave rise to it, a committee 
was appointed which made a report in 1909 upon various 
phases of moral training and recommended special instruction 
in ethics, not in the form of precept, but through consideration 
of moral questions to develop the conscience through reflection. 
At this convention Mr. Clifford Barnes rendered the report 
of the International Committee of Moral Training and included 
the Department of Training for Citizenship. One thousand 
schools were brought within the scope of investigation. In reply 
to the question as to how far the schools succeeded in culti- 
vating a sense of civic responsibility and duty to the State, 
52 per cent considered their schools fairly successful in this 
work; 48 per cent thought that their results were far from 
satisfactory. The following answer gives an idea of the stand- 
ard according to which the judgments were made: "As civic 
pride is the basis of civic duty, I had the teachers call the 
attention of pupils to places and buildings made sacred by 
the Revolution, and to have the pupils visit these buildings 
and write essays on the events with which the buildings were 
associated. Much interest was manifested. "^^* It may be in 
ferred that the recommendations of the American Political 
Science Association concerning the teaching of civics in the 
grades had not yet been generally adopted. 



^" Cf. American Political Science Association Proceedings, 1908, p. 226. 
1" National Educational Association Proceedings, 1907, p. 29. 
'"Barnes, Clifford, "Moral Training Through Public Schools," National 
Educational Association Proceedings, 1909, p. 137. 



54: Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

IV. Community Civics 

Educators are convinced that civic education in the past 
has been ineffective. Within the last few years there has been 
formed a new conception of the aim and scope of the study of 
civics. As the term community civics signifies, the emphasis 
has been shifted from the study of the machinery of government 
to the cultivation of a community spirit which is to be attained 
by the formation of civic habits, both in the work of the school 
and in the pupils' participation in the activities of the com- 
munity under the guidance of mature minds. The distinction 
between the old conception of civics and the new, parallels the 
distinction which Dr. Dewey makes between the *'State" as 
the organization of the resources of community life through 
the machinery of legislation and administration and '^Society" 
as the freer play of forces of the community which goes on in 
the daily intercourse of men in noninstitutional ways. He 
uses the phrase "preparation for citizenship" to illustrate his 
distinction. ''Citizenship to most minds means a distinctly 
political thing. It is defined in terms of relation to the govern- 
ment, not to society in its broader aspects. . . . Our com- 
munity life has awakened; and in awakening it has found that 
governmental institutions and affairs represent only a small 
part of the important purposes and diflScult problems of life; 
and that even that fraction cannot be dealt with adequately 
except in the light of a wide range of domestic, economic and 
scientific considerations quite excluded from the conception of 
the State, of citizenship."^^^ It is agreed that the instruction 
in civics should be socialized; this means essentially that it 
should be reorganized to adapt it to the pupil's present needs. 
Emphasis is placed upon the importance of the teacher's focus- 
ing her attention upon the pupil's present needs rather than 
upon his future demands, and of seizing the ''psychological and 
social moment for instruction when the boj-'s interests are 
such as to make the instruction function effectively in his 
processes of growth."^^^ The keynote of modern education is 



^^^ Dewey, J., "The School as a Center of Social Life," National Educational 
Association Proceedings, 1902, p. 374. 

^^ Social Studies in Secondary Education, Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 
1916, No. 28, p. 11. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 55 

"social efficiency." The good citizen is identified with the effi- 
cient member of the community who is imbued with a sense 
of obligation to his city, state, and nation.^" 

The recommendations of the American Political Science 
Association of 1908 have been widely adopted; viz., that be 
ginning not later than the fifth grade, the teacher should use 
as topics for language lessons or general school exercises, some 
phase of city government, as the city fire department, the city 
lighting plant, the telephone exchange, the postoffice, the police 
service, the water supply, the parks, and the schools; also, the 
men and women distinguished for public service.^''* The Report 
of the Committee of Eight of the American Historical Asso- 
ciation for elementary schools followed in 1909 with the recom- 
mendation that sociology permeate the work of the school and 
that the aim of the teaching of civics be to help the pupil to 
realize himself as a member of each political group and also 
to help him to realize, among other things: (l)What are the 
most important activities done by each group. (2) That there 
should be reciprocal exchange of honest service for honest 
support between the members of each group, the officeholders 
and the public. ^^^ 

A great impetus was given to the study of community civics 
by the committee on social studies, one of the committees of 
the commission on the reorganization of secondary education 
appointed by the president of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation in 1913, assisted by a special committee of the same 
commission. The committee has devoted the last three years 
to the reconstruction of the social studies in the seventh and 
eighth grades and in the high school. It is convinced that the 
teachers especially of these departments have a responsibility 
and an opportunity to improve our citizenship which can be 
realized only by giving the pupils a constructive attitude 
toward all social questions. Moreover, it feels that the youth 
of the country should be imbued with an unswerving faith in 
humanity and with an appreciation of the institutions whicli 



»w Cf. ibid., p. 9. 

"^ Cf. American Political Association Proceedings, 1908, p. 251. 
'*^ Cf. American Historical Association for Elementary Schools Proceedings, 
New York, 1909, p. 121. 



56 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

have contributed to the advance of civilization.^^" From the 
data derived from the inquiry into the social conditions and 
the social needs of the citizen of the United States, it has 
formulated the principles of organization of the content of 
the social studies, the methods of presenting them and the 
outlines of courses for secondary schools adapted both to the 
8 — 4 and to the 6 — 8 — 3 plans of organization. It regards as 
social studies those "whose subject matter relates directly to 
the organization and development of human society, and to 
man as a member of social groups."^'*^ The committee assumes 
that the foundation of community civics has been laid in the 
elementary grades by a six-year cycle, beginning with the first 
grade, and urges that more consideration be given to the 
organic continuity of this cycle than hitherto has been given. 
It presents outlines for two courses: the junior cycle, grades 
VII, VIII, IX, adapted to the junior high school; the senior 
cycle, grades X, XI, XII, Below the eighth grade, civics may 
be studied either as an aspect of other studies, as in the Indian- 
apolis schools, or as a distinct subject for one or more periods 
a week, as in Philadelphia.^*'" The ninth grade civics course 
emphasizes the state, national, and world aspects of the sub- 
ject,^®^ and vocational civics.^''* The social studies of the senior 
cycle include European history, American history, and problems 
of American democracy with the organizing principle which 
characterizes community civics, viz.j, "the elements of wel- 
fare."^^^ The committee summarizes appreciatively the prepara- 
tion which community civics furnishes for the higher social 
studies: '"Community civics is a course of training in citizen- 
ship, organized with reference to the pupils' immediate needs, 
rich in historical, sociological, economic, and political relations, 
and affording a logical and pedagogical sound avenue of ap- 
proach to the later social studies.""** 

We cannot recall too often that the essence of civic educa- 



1^" Cf . Social Studies in Secondary Education, Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 
1916, No. 28, p. 5. 
1" Cf. Ihid., p. 9. 

162 Cf. ihid., pp. 16, 17. 

163 Cf. ihid, pp. 25, 26. 
i«4 Cf. ihid., pp. 26-29. 
iw Cf. ihid., p. 23. 

166 Ihid., p. 34. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 57 

tion is character, rather than knowledge. ''Civic education 
is ... a process of cultivating existing tendencies, traits, 
and interests ... (It is) a cultivation of civic qualities 
which have already 'sprouted' and which will continue to grow 
under the eyes of the teacher."^"^ 

In the following observation the committee seems to glimpse 
the difficulty which lies at the heart of the task : "Probably 
the greatest obstacle to the vitalization of the social studies is 
the lack of preparation on the part of the teachers."^^^ But the 
suggestion of the training of teachers here given is of a purely 
intellectual character: "In teacher-training schools, however, 
special attention should be given to methods by which instruc- 
tion in the social studies may be made to meet the 'needs of 
present growth' in pupils of elementary and high school age."^'® 
The academic and professional training are essentially neces- 
sary, but if the teacher is to cultivate in the pupils the con- 
structive attitude toward social conditions which will be 
fruitful in good works, the question arises : Is such training 
adequate preparation for the teaching of a subject funda- 
mentally ethical? Dr. Kerschensteiner says : "No person, least 
of all the young, becomes more diligent, careful, thorough, 
attentive, or self-denying as a result of the most careful ex- 
hortations and sermons on such subjects as the meaning of 
diligence and indolence, of care or neglect, of devotion and 
selfishness, unless we take })ains to overcome the innate selfish 
laziness, the germ of all."^^° Effective training in citizenship 
must get behind the springs of action and set the inner forces 
working right. How shall we develop in the "habitual center 
of [the pupil's] personal energy. "^^^ disinterested service, that 
essential note of citizenship? To inquire into this question 
and to point out the answer will be the purpose of the next 
chapter. 



"^ Dunn, A. W., ''Standards by Which to Test the Vahie of Civics Inttruc- 
tion," Social Studies in Secondary Education, op. cit., p. 57. 
i6» Cf. ibid., p. 58. 
i«« Ibid., p. 59. 

1™ Kerschensteiner, G., op. cit., p. 54. 
"^ James, W., Varietiex of Religious Experience. New York, 190iJ, p. 196. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PERSONALITY OP THE TEACHER 

The vital factor in effective civic education, as in all moral 
training, is the training of the will to habits of action. While 
knowledge is an important element in the process, an idea of 
itself does not determine conduct which it can modify only 
through its effect on the will. Can virtue be taught? is a well- 
worn question from the days of Socrates. Instruction and 
exhortation do not of themselves reach the springs of conduct. 
''Omne vivens ex viveyite" : Life communicates life. '^Morality, 
like culture, like religion, is propagated, not evolved. . . . 
Character builds character. Which are the virtues that make 
man worthy and strong? Are they not truthfulness, sincerity, 
reverence, honesty, obedience, chastity, patience, mildness, 
industry, politeness, sobriety, reasonableness, perseverance? 
Who can propagate these virtues? They in whom they are 
living powers — they and they alone.""^ Since moral education 
consists in training the will to right choice, we face the question, 
How can the will be reached ? It is the active side of human 
nature. It is the power whereby one is master of one's own 
actions. In the training of the pupil it is important that the 
conditions affecting his volitional activity be favorable for the 
formation of good habits. 

The source of the wilFs freedom is intelligence. However, 
illumined though it be by the intellect, the will receives no 
force from an idea alone ; but let this same idea be tempered 
with emotion, it becomes an impelling motive, enabling a man 
to translate an heroic conception into conduct. Hence, although 
principles of conduct are important to point the way, of them- 
selves they are futile for action. In some way they must be 
energized with emotion. The trained will is able to accomplish 
this fusing of idea and emotion. For the pupil, however, whose 
will is yet unformed, the idea must be made attractive and 
quickened and vivified by the teacher's living presence in 
order to stimulate to ri»ht action. 



"* Spalding, J. L., Opportunity. Chicago, 1903, p. 100. 
58 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 59 

The advocates of direct moral instruction agree tliat the 
most eflScacious means of cultivating a virtue in pupils is by 
the narration of stories to stir admiration for the man in 
whom the virtue shines.^^^ As the shadow to the reality is the 
most vivid word picture of the hero to the object lesson of the 
living teacher who shows forth in her^"* personality the virtues 
that she would have the pupils form in the development of 
their character. The thrill of admiration which her actions 
evoke will be a force to arouse the inner potency of the pupil 
to reach out and strive to copy the pattern. "For humanity 
and zeal, public spirit and liberality develop quickest under 
the attraction of a living example, when opportunities for 
moral action are present in abundance. With this magic wand 
we draw civic virtue from every youthful heart that we 
touch.""5 

The primordial attraction-repugnance instinct is deeply 
rooted in the child's nature and is a source of energy which 
may take the form of either enthusiasm or scorn in regard to 
the qualities of character. This instinct enters largely into 
that "complex of instincts suggested by the name imitation."^^* 
The reactions of the child's instinct of imitation upon the 
objects of his environment determine the foundation of his 
social consciousness. *'It is by imitation that the child learnj* 
its language. It is by imitation that it acquires all the social 
tendencies that make it a tolerable member of society. Its 
imitativeness is the source of an eager and restless activity 
which the child pursues for years under circumstances of great 
difficulty, and even when the processes involved seem to be 
more painful than pleasurable. Imitativeness remains with ns? 
through life.""^ 



"' Cf . Sneath and Hodges, Moral Training in School and Home. New York, 
1913, p. 5. Gould, F. G., "The Positive Method of Moral Instruction." 
Memoires sur U Education Morale, Congrh d la Haye, 1912, p. 334. Thorn- 
dike. E. L., Principles of Teaching. New York, 1900, p. 193. 

*'* The predominating numbers of women as teachers both in the Catholic 
school and in the State school warrant the use of the feminine pronoun through- 
out the study. 80.2 per cent of the teachers in the elementary and secondary 
State schools are women. Cf. Bureau of Education, unpublished statistics, 
1914. 

"* Kerschensteiner, op. cit., p. 121. 

"« Rovce, J., Outlines of Psychology. New York, 1903, p. 276. 

"'76ii., p. 276. 



60 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

Teaching is a spiritual art in which mind cooperates with 
mind. In this respect it may be classified with the high arts 
of music, poetry, and oratory. In all forms of artistic activity 
principles are not learned as generalizations or explanations 
of facts, but they are incorporated into the method of action 
and direct the manner of expressing the ideals in the artist's 
mind.^^* The science of teaching takes account of the end and 
means of education and the nature of the material to be taught, 
and it is a prerequisite to successful teaching. The spirit and 
educative power of the teacher, which in so far as it is not a 
native endowment must be acquired through self-cultivation 
of character, is not less essential. 

That the teacher is the only artist who cannot represent the 
virtues that she does not possess is a serious thought for all 
who would assume the responsibility of forming the character 
of pupils. She works with a complex human being who is grad- 
ually learning to think, and who will grow into a more valuable 
person who will think and will for himself. The vital factor 
in this process is not so much the method followed as the 
dynamic force of personality of the teacher, who should ex- 
emplify in a positive way the virtues which she would form 
the pupils to practice. Her qualities will be taken over by 
them in an unreflective but unfailing way in accordance with 
the principle of imitation. The work of the teacher is a kind 
of personal intercourse with the pupil, second only to that of 
parent and child. It is a matter of general acceptance that 
"the close mental and moral resemblances of children to parents 
are largely the result of imitation.""^ In so far as the children 
are under the influence of the teacher, they acquire her char- 
acteristics. "Heredity does not stop with birth."^^" "It is 
inevitable that he [the child] make up his personality, under 
limitations of heredity, by imitation, out of the 'copy' set in 
the actions, temper, emotions of the persons who build around 
him the social enclosure of his childhood. "^®^ The child's organ- 



"3 Cf . Ladd, G. T., The Practical Philosophy of the Teacher. New York, 
1911, p. 17. 

175 Ross, E. A., Social Control. New York, 1901, p. 163. 

1^" Baldwin, J. M., Mental Development in the Child and the Race, New York, 
1903, p. 361. 

181 Ibid., p. 357. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness «1 

ism is sensitive, plastic, and full of vitality. As it develops and 
differentiates, its vitality grows less, but in the same propor- 
tion the nerve elements lose their instability and take on a 
permanence integrating the "copy" into their own nerve fiber. 
"Imitation is the method by which the milieu of thought and 
feeling in all its aspects gets carried over and reproduced 
within us in a system of relationships to which we have learned 
to react."^^^ "In Leibnitz's phrase, the boy or girl is a social 
monad, a little world, which reflects the whole system of in- 
fluences coming to stir its sensibility. And just in as far as 
his sensibilities are stirred he imitates and forms habits of 
imitating; and habits — they are character I"^^^ The position 
of the teacher gives her a prestige next to that of the parent in 
the eyes of the pupil. "A child is unquestionably a true som- 
nambulist.^** . . . When a ten or twelve year old boy 
leaves his family for school he seems to himself to have become 
demagnetized, to have been aroused from his dream of parental 
respect and admiration. Whereas, in reality, he becomes still 
more prone to admiration and imitation in his submission to 
the ascendancy of one of his masters or, better still, of some 
prestigeful classmate."^®^ Dr. Koss emphasizes the partial sub 
stitution of the teacher for the parent as a model upon which 
the child forms his character. "Copy the child will and the 
teacher is a picked person. Childhood is the heyday of per- 
sonal influence. The position of the teacher gives him prestige 
and the lad will take from him suggestions that the adult will 
accept only from rare personalities. . . , It is possible to 
fix in the plastic child-mind principles upon which, later, may 
be built a huge structure of practical consequence."^®* 

The principle of imitation and the force of personal example 
was turned to advantage by the ancient Greeks, who, although 
they may not have had critical insight into the psychological 
process of the operation of these laws, yet recognized and ap- 
preciated their practical value in the training of youth. One 



i«» Ibid., p. 324. 
183 Ibid., p. 358. 

1** In the sense of being deprived of the power of resistance. Cf. Tarde, G., 
The Latrs of Imitation, translated by Parsons, E. C. New York, 1903, p. 81. 
1" Ibid., pp. 82, 83. 
"• Ross, E. A., op. cit., pp. 164-66. 



62 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

means of developing character among them, so widely adopted 
as to be known as an institution, was the habitual association 
of a youth with an older man in the relation of "inspired" and 
"inspirer." This definite effort of character building through 
personality is in perfect accord with the scientific principle 
of imitation and is one of the contributions of Greek education 
which might be adapted to conditions of modern educational 
practice. The nearest approach to the method of the Greeks 
in making personal example a character-forming influence was 
the tutorial system of England a half century ago. At Rugby 
every boy was assigned to a classical tutor and spent some 
hours each week with him during his entire school life, enjoy- 
ing friendly, even intimate, relations with him.^*^ 

Since the work of the teacher in the process of education is 
to help the pupil to self-realization; that is, to develop his 
potential personality by directing his self-activity of intellect, 
sensibility, and will so that he will form himself into a person 
of character; and since the effective instrument in this su- 
premely important work is the personality of the teacher, the 
question forces itself upon one, What is meant by personality? 
In the sense of the realization of moral freedom, personality 
was discovered by the Greeks when they began to reflect on 
the freedom which they had won by the exercise of their indi- 
vidual initiative. Their conception of it was narrow, based 
not upon the personal worth of man as such, but upon the 
personal worth of the free citizen. Aristotle attained the 
highest development not only in Greek, but in all pre-Christian 
thought ; and yet he regarded personality not as the personality 
of man for the sake of his humanity, but as the personality of 
a free citizen. Not human dignity but citizenship was the 
basis of personal worth.^*^ Some men were born to be savages, 
others to be artisans and slaves. The true ground of per- 
sonality, the inherent dignity of manhood with the powers of 
intellect and self-determination is the product of Christianity. 
Each may improve the value of his personality by his own 
activity. "The true ideal of a fully developed personality does 



^^^ Cf. Wilson, J. M., "Introduction" to School Homilies by Sidgwick, A. 
London, 1916, pp. 9, 10. 

188 Cf. Pace, E. A.. "Education," Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V., p. 297. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 63 

not consist merely in a keen intellectual acumen, nor in an 
intense, but inactive, susceptibility to the moods of happy 
feeling, nor in a perpetual unresting activity; it involves a 
balance of all these elements."^^® 

Pestalozzi was the great apostle of the personality of the 
teacher.^"" He, as one of the founders of the new education, 
held that the teacher's task was a ''continual benevolent super- 
intendence,"^ whose chief work was to cultivate through ''a 
thinking love""- the self-activity of the child in order to call 
forth the powers which Divine Providence had implanted in the 
mind. He was the first modern educator who advocated and in- 
culcated unlimited faith in the power of human love. In his 
plant metaphor, the work of the teacher is to sitimulate, in the 
large sense of the word, the child to develop the power which 
Providence has implanted, and it is important to note that the 
work of stimulating is extended to include pruning and grafting 
upon a kindred stem, but never to the work of transplanting. 
We do not plant the roots of habit. The native tendencies or 
instincts, active or dormant, which are the basis of habits, are 
already a part of the child's organism. 

Pestalozzi recognized the strategic point which the emotions 
hold in the forming of character by this power of fusing the 
ideas and the will. This "thinking love," or sympathetic in- 
sight, constituting the primal qualification of the teacher may 
be interpreted as seeing through the child's eyes, but with the 
teacher's own clearer vision. Pestalozzi's conception of the 
teacher's function may be inferred from the following: "The 
better education of which I dream reminds me of a tree planted 
by the river side. What is that tree? Where has it sprung 
from, witli its roots, trunk, branches, twigs and fruits? You 
plant a tiny seed in the ground; in that seed lies the whole 
nature of the tree. . . . The growth of the tree is like that 
of man. . . . Man's capacity for faith and love is to him 



i«» Wallace, W., Lectures and Essays. Oxford, 1898, p. 297. 

1" Cf. Mark, H. Thistleton, Individuality and the Moral Aim in American 
Education. London, 1901, p. 123. 

I'l Pestalozzi, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, quoted in Pestalozzi by 
Holman, H. New York. 1908, p. 191. 

192 Pestalozzi, Letters on Early Education Addressed to Graves, J. P. Lon- 
don, 1827, p. 5. 



64 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

from the point of view of his education just what the roots 
are to the growth of the tree. By means of the root the tree 
draws nourishment from the earth for all its parts. Men must 
see that the roots of their own high nature preserve a like 
power. . . . What is the true type of education ? It is like 
the art of the gardener under whose care a thousand trees 
bloom and grow. . . . He plants and waters, but God gives 
the increase. ... He only watches that no external force 
should injure the roots, the trunk, or the branches of the tree. 
So with the educator : he imparts no single power to men. Ho 
gives neither life nor breath. He only watches lest any external 
force should injure or disturb. He takes care that develoi>ment 
runs its course in accordance with its own laws."^^^ 

Pestalozzi's plant metaphor contains implicitly the present 
educational doctrine that the teacher's function is to minister 
to the needs of present growth of the pupil; to find truth at 
its sources and present it to the child in a form and method 
suited to his capacity."* The task of the teacher, therefore, is 
to help the pupil in his progress toward true personality, which 
he must achieve for himself through self-realization. 

Saint Thomas's idea of the function of the teacher, as set 
forth in his theory of education in De Magistro, is essentially 
that of stimulating the mind to self-activity and of furnishing 
suitable material for it at each stage of its development. The 
mind endowed with the seeds of knowledge, scientiarum semina, 
has the germinal capacity or inborn tendency to intellectual 
activity. It develops only by its reactions upon the stimuli of 
its environment. This principle of self-activity of the mind 
lays upon the teacher the duty to suggest and to direct, and to 
minister to the growing intellect material suitable to evoke 
the vital response of its native energy. Saint Thomas's ap- 
preciation of the dignity and responsibility of the teacher in 
developing the rationes seminales of the child-mind can scarcely 
be exaggerated. He regarded the task of the educator in min- 
istering to the development of the intellect and the will, the 
greatest powers in the universe and destined for immortality, 



"^ Pestalozzi, Educational Writings, edited by Green, J. A. London, 1912, 
pp. 188, 189, 195. 

"* Cf. Shields, T. E., The Psychology of Education. Washington, 1905, .p 39. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 65 

as a divine work, and the educator, a cooperator witli God 
Himself.^^5 

Since man is fundamentally social, it is only in society that 
the whole man is called out, volitionally, emotionally, and 
intellectually. Self-realization, therefore, has both a subjective 
aud an objective reference. We shall consider first the personal 
reference. Human nature undisciplined is an anarchy of appe- 
tites and tendencies. ^°° The child is purely a creature of 
impulses overflowing with spontaneous activities. Education 
is to put him in possession of himself by making his action 
self-controlled. He wins his moral freedom through the 
struggle of his two selves in the process of organizing and 
ordering these two sets of opposing tendencies and subordinat- 
ing the lower to the higher. The child's will is formed by per- 
sistent efforts and innumerable acts. Personality is the 
achievement wrought by the will ruling the natural impulses : 
that is, in the constant reaction upon the child's inherent self- 
ishness of the ideals v,'hich have captivated him. Virtue must 
be made attractive to call out the effort to pursue it. But 
admiration and enthusiasm on the part of the child are not 
enough. Here the "thinking love" of the teacher should recog- 
nize a second essential in order to make the ideal actual. If 
the child is to attain the virtue, the conditions to practice it 
must be in the beginning as favorable as possible. He must 
not only be sustained, but he must be attracted at first to react 
in such a way as to initiate acts which shall form good habits 
and cause the ideal to spring into life. Let us take the funda- 
mental virtue of truth, which is the very core of character and 
which should be cultivated so carefully that the mind will take 
the set of sincerity. Truth must be a part of the teacher's moral 
equipment and her appreciation of its excellence and beauty 
should evoke a love for it in the pupils; but she should go 
further and link truth with such kindness of heart as will 
make it easy for every child to tell the truth. Dr. Foerster 



155 Cf. Pace, E. A., "Saint Thomas's Theory of Education," Catholic Univer- 
sity Bulletin, Vol. 8, pp. 293ff. 

196 Qf "(^e qui frappe tout psychologue et tout educateur non aveugle par 
une idee precongue, c'est que I'enfant sain est une anarchie d'idees, d'appetits 
et de tendances." Payot, J., "L'Education du Caractere," Revue Philoso- 
phique. Vol. XXXVIII, p. 611. 



66 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

says : "One of the highest principles of social and civic educa 
tion consists in forming an alliance between the creative per 
sonal energy and the striving for the preservation and improve- 
ment of human society. Instead of merely teaching a union as 
an abstract principle of civic morality, the teacher must ask 
himself: In what simple and concrete life-incidents can I 
embody this principle? . . . 

''Let us take the conflict between truth and love of neighbor. 
Some wish to sacrifice truth to humanity; others, humanity 
to truth. For the advancement of social culture it is important 
that the young person be urged to make a synthesis between 
the personal conscience and the claims of charity, and to hold 
it in high regard. In our example, the synthesis is feasible only 
on condition that the absolute truth is adhered to, and at the 
same time the greatest care is taken to strenghen and sustain 
him whom we credit with the love of truth. We must help him 
to such a spiritual condition that he is able to feel the truth 
which must become fruitful in his life and soul. In the manner 
in which we speak the truth we attack his self-respect so un- 
sparingly that he does not recognize our truth. And we forget 
that truth itself suffers if it is separated from social deli- 
cacy."^®^ 



18' "Eins der hochsten Prinzipien sozialer und staatlicher Erziehung besteht 
nun darin, die schopferische personliche Energie eng mit Streben nach Bewah- 
rung und Vertiefung menschlicher Geineinschaft zu verkniipfen. Statt nun 
solche Verkniipfung bloss als abstraktes Prinzip staatsblirglicher Gesittung 
zu lehren, muss der Erzieher sich fragen: In welchen einfachen und kon- 
kreten Lebensvorgangen kann ich dies Prinzip verkorpern? . . . 

"Nehmen wir den Konliikt von Wahrhaftigheit und Menschenliebe. Die 
einen woUen bier die Wahrheit der Humanitat, die andern die Humanitat der 
Wahrheit opfern. 

"Es ist nun fiir die Ausgestaltung sozialer Kultur sehr bedeutungsvoll, das 
mann junge Menschen dazu anregt, in solchen Konflikten eine Synthese 
zwiscben dem persijnlichsten Gewissen und den Forderungen der Liebe und 
Riicksicbt ausfindig zu macben. In unserm Beispiel ist die Synthese nur so 
denkbar, das zwar die unbedingte Wahrbaftigkeit festgehalten, aber zugleicb 
die grosste Sorgfalt aufgewendet wird, den Mencken zu starken und auf- 
zuricbten, dem wir die Wabrbeit zumuten. Wir miissen ibm in den seeliscben 
Zustand belfen, in dem er fiibig ist, die Wabrbeit zu ertragen, ja dieselbe fiir 
sein Leben und seine Seele frucbtbar zu macben. . . . Durch die Art, wie 
wir die Wabrbeit sagen, greifen wir die Selbstacbtung des andern so sbon- 
ungslos an, dass er sicb nicht fabig fiihlt, unsere Wabrbeit anzuerkennen. 
. . . Und wir vergessen, dass die Wahrbaftigkeit selber leidet, wenn sie sich 
von der Verbindung mit sozialer Feinheit lost." 

Foerster, F. W., StaaisbiirgerUche Erziehung. Berlin, 1914, pp. 120, 121. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 67 

In the minds of many, education is essentially a social process 
with a social viewpoint^^® Fitting the individual for the highest 
social service becomes the aim of their system. "We must take 
the child as a member of society in the broadest sense, and 
demand whatever is necessary to enable the child to recognize 
all his social relations, and to carry them out."^^" Granting, 
however, that the purpose of training citizens is to secure 
better service for the State and that all education involves a 
social ideal, the only effective way to secure better service is 
to make more intelligent and more moral each individual of 
the group. We shall consider morality, therefore, from the 
two-fold viewpoint : (1) subjective, or personal ; (2) objective, 
or social. Morality is fundamentally subjective and personal. 
It is interior in its origin and motive; it is largely exterior in 
its reference. The inner purpose as a basic attitude of life is 
the first consideration. It is widely deplored that our remark- 
able industrial progress has brought with it a loosening of 
the conscience in business and politics. "Good citizenship 
requires common honesty, business integrity and truth-telling. 
What about the appalling revelations made within the last 
three years in so many places concerning the adulterations of 
drugs, foods, and drinks; about our growing money madness, 
and what is becoming of business integrity under the methods 
of competing cheajjuess of productions, trusts, and combina- 
tions that control the prices and output and even the interests 
of life ; about secret rebates and the suppression of the natural 
laws of competition? . . . We delude ourselves that these 
evils can be overcome by neatness, order, the moral influence 
of music and history, by emphasizing and teaching respect for 
authority, by self-government, good character, and the example 
of teachers. Yet these are the only cures I find in the latest 
discussions of the pedagogy of the present."^''" Barring the 
adulterations of foods, an evil which the National Pure Food 
Law, passed June 30, 1906, has checked in great measure, this 
grave charge of the lack of ethical standards, want of public 



"s Cf. King, I., Social Aspects of Education. New York, 1912. 
1" Dewey, J., Educational Essays. London, ed. by Findlay, p. 28. 
"" Hall, G. S.. "Relation of the Church to the State," Pedagogical Seminary, 
Vol. XV, pp. 191-92. 



68 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

responsibility, and unrestrained self-interest made by Dr. G. 
Stanley Hall in 1908, may be made with an equal basis of fact 
at the present time. It is an acknowledgment of the need of 
developing the personal conscience of the child in order to 
lead him to lay hold of the virtues indispensable to integrity of 
character. ''True self-realization, the consideration of others, 
the maintenance of society, are all conditioned upon the deepest 
relations of our spiritual health. The State needs the soul — 
the soul needs the State."^°^ 

The objective or social reference of morality considers the 
individual as a member of society. It is through society thar 
man attains self-realization. His native capacities and poAvers 
are developed by cooperating with the other members of tlie 
group. In the fulfillment of his social obligations he develops 
his sense of truth, Justice, and charity. In proportion as these 
virtues form the basis of his social relations, he attains the 
objective end of morality. Under these two essential aspects 
of morality, the intention of the act and the object of the act 
with its circumstances, man is considered as acting both as a 
citizen of an unseen world and as a member of society. 

Training for citizenship of the present day is directed to 
training in social conduct. The specific aims of comnianity 
civics to attain this end are: 

"1. To see the importance and significance of the elements 
of community welfare in their relations to himself and to the 
communities of which he is a member. 

"2. To know the social agencies, governmental and voluntary, 
that exist to secure these elements of community welfare. 

"3. To recognize his civic obligations, present and future, 
and to respond to them by appropriate action."^"^ 

These aims are all concerned with man's corporate life; his 
duties flow entirely from his social relationships and obliga- 
tions; his personality is recognized only so far as he is a 
member of society, and his ideals are all social ideals. Social 
relationships, it is true, constitute a great share of man's moral 



201 "Das Sicheinordnen, das Denken an die andern das Gemeinshaft-Halten 
gehort eben auch zu den tiefsten Bedingungen unserer seelischen Gesundheit. 
Der Staat braucht die Seele — die Seele braucht den Staat!" Foerster, F.^W., 
Staatsbiirgerliche Erziehung. Berlin, 1914, pp. 123-24. 

''o^ The Teaching of Community Civics, Bureau of Education, Bulletin No, 
23, 1915, p. 12. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 69 

life. His duties as a citizen require him to be benevolent! j 
interested in the welfare of his fellows. But the first essential 
is to plant deep the roots of morality by making the child feel 
his personal responsibility as a citizen of an unseen world. 
Eesponsibility as a member of the social group and subordina- 
tion of personal interest to the public good are vital both for 
morality and for citizenship and flow naturally from the prin- 
ciple of personal responsibility. The teacher whose personality 
has been formed upon these lines, whose conception of duty in- 
cludes ideal interests of both personal integrity and social 
obligations, will endeavor to lay deep in the heart of the pupil 
the principle that his relation to society is one of willing 
cooperation, and to train him to habits of ready service to the 
community. *'In our demands for citizenship, we cannot stop 
short of the man capable of devotion. If a man does not allow 
himself to feel the joy of self-sacrifice in a righteous cause, he 
is not out of the reach of private gain,"^^^ 

Absence of personal responsibility is probably the greatest 
evil that threatens society today. The child must come to 
realize that no individual lives to himself, but that he owes to 
his fellow-men duties which must be fulfilled not from any 
hope of compensation, but from the obligation laid upon him 
to help his neighbor. In this light the duties of citizenship 
become a matter of high principle. Mutual support flowing 
from the principle of human solidarity has always been a 
fundamental Christian principle. "Bear ye one another's bur- 
dens; and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ."^'** The mere 
teaching of this principle is apt to degenerate into formal 
routine. It is for the teacher to aid in translating it into con- 
duct by helping the child to an understanding of the ways in 
which it may be done by leading the way and showing an 
example of unselfish devotion to large interests. She should 
have an idea of what community service is. She should inspire 
and support movements in the school to cultivate a civic spirit. 
She should generate a sacrificing spirit which, in order to 
have a force adequate to command the will, should not be a 
love of neighbor whose inspiring motive is our common hu- 
manity, but a love of neighbor whose inspiration is fraternity 



20' Tucker, W. J., Public- Mindedness. Concord, 1910, p. 4. 
20^ Galatians, VI, 2. 



70 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

through communion with Christ. The more thoroughly she 
is permeated with this community spirit, the more she will 
charge the atmosphere of the school room with the same spirit. 
The close relation that the teacher's devotion to a cause sus- 
tains to the effectiveness of her teaching to promote the cause 
is illustrated in the results of the instruction of the injurious 
effects of alcohol and narcotics. In forty-six States legislation 
provides, either explicitly by statute, or implicitly by making 
it an academic branch required for every grade of certificate, 
that instruction in this subject be given,^"^ yet the work has 
been done effectively only where the teacher was really inter- 
ested in the subject. Unless the spirit is concentrated in the 
heart of the teacher, it soon evaporates. 

"The child ought to have exactly the same motives for right- 
doing, and be judged by exactly the same standard in the school, 
as the adult in the wider social life to which he belongs."^"^ He 
should be made to function socially in order to function socially 
when a man. To this end, the teacher should study her pupils 
and adjust her methods so that education becomes a prepara- 
tion for the experiences and obligations which the child will 
face in the future. The truly social spirit calls for the practice 
of humility and self-abnegation. "The teacher should use the 
most varying incidents to lead the children in their early experi- 
ences to a really social solution of human difficulties. In rival 
conflicts between children, not only clear justice should be 
made known, but the victor should be persuaded to make atone- 
ment to the one defeated for the conquest that he has won. The 
moral danger of a successful life and of excelling one's less 
gifted neighbor and the habit of the pupil's thinking himself 
in the other's place in order to treat him accordingly, should 
be subjects of thorough discussion in the school."^"'' 



"' Digest of State Laws Relating to Public Education. Washington, 1916, 
pp. 634-37. 

*'" Dewey, J., "Essays," op. cit., p. 37. 

*o' "Sollte der Erzieher die verschiedensten Konflikte benutzen, die Jugend 
ihon auf den ersten Stufen zu einer wirklich sozialen Lbsung menschlichen 
Schwierigkeiten anzuleiten. Bel Interessenkonflikten zwischen Kindern 
sollte nicht nur das klare Recht herausgestellt werden, sondern der Sieger 
auch stets angeregt werden, dem Besiegten eine Entschadigung fiir die Nieder- 
lage zu scha£Fen. Die moralische Gefahr des erfolgreichen Lebens, des tJber- 
holens von schwacher Begabten, und die Kunst, sich in deren Seele hineinzu- 
denken, sie dementsprechend zu behandeln, sollte in der Scbule griindlich 
Bur Sprache gebracht werden." Foerster, F. W., Staatsbiirgerliche Erziehung. 
Berlin. 1914, p. 123. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 71 

Such conditions of inequality are a constant factor in human 
life. The school should be the training ground to teach pupils 
the "notion of fraternity which can reconcile the two conflict- 
ing necessities of inequality and of solidarity,"^"® and to exer- 
cise them in its practice. For this training a knowledge of the 
principles of psychology is an important part of the teacher's 
equipment; but such a perfect knowledge of human nature as 
Professor Thorndike says would enable the teacher to tell the 
effect of every stimulus and the cause of every response, and, 
therefore, the result upon the pupil that his every act would 
effect,^"^ would not guarantee success. Such training requires 
on the part of the teacher an appreciation of the conditions 
which come from an insight into this correlation of duty and 
capacity, and consequently of inequality.'^" It requires constant 
endeavor to develop a spirit which will open the hearts of the 
pupils to the great spiritual motive of unselfishness and service. 
It requires the exemplification of this virtue in the teacher's 
own conduct. It requires such a personal interest in each pupil 
that the teacher can say with truth, "But I most gladly will 
spend and be spent myself for your souls."^" Dr. Ladd says, *'I 
regard it as the privilege and the duty of the teacher to make 
himself the efficient and faithful servant of those who are given 
him to teach, but this attitude must never be assumed to coui- 
promise his dignity."^^^ The teacher's center of interest han 
become the basic principle of classification of professional 
teachers. In proportion as the academic subjects, or the study 
of the pupils themselves are central in their teacher's conscious- 
ness, is she an amateur or a professional worker. The greatest 
asset of the teacher is that devotion to the pupil which comes 
from the appreciation of the value of each personality, a devo- 
tion that will make one wish to "leave the ninety-nine in the 
desert, and go after that which was lost, until he find it.''^^^ 

The teacher should cultivate a high esteem for lier work. The 
ideal form of her activity is a personal intercourse with the 



'08 Chatterton-Hill, G., op. cii., p. 107. 

*" Cf. Thorndike, E. L., The Princifles of Teaching, op. cit., p. Q. 

iio Cf. Chattertou-Hill, G., op. cii., p. 107. 

"1 II. Corinthians, XII, 15. 

»i2 Op. cit., p. 220. 

"» Luke, XV, 4. 



72 Pedagogical Value of Willingness '"■■' 

pupil. Her work will be most successful who holds a high 
estimate of the personality of the pupil and of the value of 
personal qualities. She should possess eminently the qualities 
which she wishes to reproduce in her pupils. Therefore, to 
train for citizenship, she herself should know the joys that 
come from personal service and from sinking personal ambitions 
for the greater good of the group. That the ideal may have 
energizing force, and not lapse into a merely formal intellec- 
tual notion, there must be a constant striving to bring oneself 
into conformity with it. In Plato's Eepublic, the true educators 
"when engaged upon their work will often turn their eyes 
upwards and downwards; I mean that they will first look at 
absolute justice and beauty and temperance, and again at the 
human copy ; and will mingle and temper the various elements 
of life into the image of a man; and this they will conceive 
according to that other image which, when existing among 
men. Homer calls the form and likeness of God."^^* For ex- 
ample and ideals of brotherly love, the teacher finds her model 
in the Perfect Teacher, Who made the love of fellow-man the 
test of becoming His disciple : ''By this shall all men know that 
you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.''^^^ For 
example and inspiration to self-sacrifice and self-devotion, 
again she finds her model in Him Who made sacrifice and serv- 
ice the only test of greatness : "But whosoever will be greater 
shall be your minister. And whosoever will be first among you, 
shall be the servant of all. For the Son of man also is not come 
to be ministered unto, but to minister."-^*' 



21* Plato, The Republic translated by Jowett. New York, 1901, Book VI, 
pp. 195-96. 

215 John XIII, 35. 

216 Mark, X, 43, 44, 45. 



CHAPTER V 

THE PREPARATION OF THE STATE TEACHER TO TRAIN IN WILLINGNESS 
FOR DISINTERESTED SERVICE 

That the teacher must possess the moral qualities which she 
wishes to cultivate in the child is a principle with a definite 
psychological basis, as was set forth in the preceding chapter. 
Willingness for disinterested service is an eminent requirement 
for good citizenship. The spirit of community interest and 
responsibility and the consequent sinking of personal aims and 
satisfactions in order to promote the general good should be 
one of the animating principles, and at the same time one of 
the criteria, of the true citizen. This spiritual quality, like all 
things of the spirit, is enkindled by spirit. Disinterestedness 
in the pupil is begotten by the overflow of that same spirit from 
the heart of the teacher in whom it has become a life-principle 
of conduct. The personality of the teacher is the active condi- 
tioning force stimulating and encouraging the child to those 
activities which will fix in his plastic, potential nature the 
moral qualities of unselfishness and helpfulness-to-others. The 
educational thought of the last two centuries has deflected the 
emphasis from the influence of the teacher to the problems of 
the curriculum, the nature of the child, and the need of social 
adjustment on the part of the school. "In the emphasis of 
child, society, and course of study the teacher has been for- 
gotten."^^^ "Few teachers have any real appreciation of the 
manner in which the teacher's personality and the social life of 
the school aff'ect the child's education."^^® While conscious of 
the importance of conserving each of the elements which di- 
rectly condition classroom work, and especially the need of 
proper social conditions, we maintain that the personality of 
the teacher is the vitally controlling factor. '' The important fact 
is that the teacher occupies the key position of the educational 



-1^ Suzzallo, H., "Editor's Introduction," to Teacher's Philosophy in and 
Out of School, Hyde, W. D. Boston, 1910, p. XI. 

21* Suzzallo, H., "Editor's Introduction" to The Status of The Teacher, 
Perry, A. C. Boston, 1912, p. IX. 

73 



74 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

situation. She stands constantly on the frontier of childhooa , 
she deals with weak, plastic, and variable children."^^'' 

Training in citizenship in some form, however unsystematic 
it may have been, has had a place in the curriculum for more 
than fifty years^^° with unsatisfactory results. Among the 
experts of civic education there is at present an awakening to 
the need of adequately trained teachers for this high duty. 
"Civic education is the education of the qualities of good citi- 
zenship. What teachers need is not so much a more intimate 
knowledge of governmental activities, as a new attitude and 
point of view. The technique may be imparted readily enough, 
but the spirit of good citizenship can be taught only by men or 
women who are themselves markedly proficient in the knowl- 
edge of civic and social obligation."^^^ To the proficiency of 
knowledge of civic and social obligation, as a vitally necessary 
part of the teacher's equipment, we add willingness for disin- 
terested service. The cultivation of that quality in the plastic 
nature of the child lies at the heart of the school's task, and 
"what is taught is learned or not, according as these virtues 
prevail in the teacher's life. . . . The most important part 
in the moralizing of the school is the moralizing of the 
teacher."22=^ 

The logic of the situation forces the inquiry: Where may 
teachers be found in whom willingness for disinterested service 
is a life principle? By the operation of what law of selection 
are they chosen? By what system are they trained? By what 
means is this spiritual quality maintained and heightened while 
the teacher is in service? To these questions we now address 
our inquiry. 

There are two systems of schools in the United States — the 
State school and the Catholic school. Each of these systems 
has its own means of preparing teachers. These means are the 
State system of normal schools and the Catholic system of the 
religious novitiate with its normal school. Each has its specific 
method of improving its teachers while in service. This study 



*" Coffman, L. D., The Social Composition of the Teaching Population, 
New York. 1911, p. 1. 

"0 Cf. p. 37, supra. 

*^^ Ryan, W. C, "Introductory Survey," Report of Commissioner of Educa- 
tion, 1913, Vol. I., p. 11. 

"' Sneath and Hodges, op. cit., p. 201. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 75 

is restricted to the typical means at the disposal of each of 
these systems by virtue of the fundamental principle underly- 
ing each to prepare the teacher adequately to cultivate in the 
pupil willingness for distinterested service. There will be no 
attempt to inquire into the factors constituting general teach- 
ing efficiency. Of the many possible factors, ability in academic 
and professional studies and other qualities which condition 
success in general, but one, the element of personality, will be 
considered, and that only as far as it is essential to the training 
in citizenship by developing the spirit of patriotic disinter- 
estedness. To develop the quality in her pupils, the teacher 
must possess it herself. The inquiry will be directed to three 
points, the captions of which are : 

I. The motive which impels the candidate of each system to 
enter the teaching service. 

II. The preparation of the intending teacher to cultivate in 
her pupils the willingness for disinterested service. 

III. The means furnished by each system to maintain and 
heighten in the teacher this quality of mind and conduct while 
in service. 

In view of this analysis, it will be necessary to consider the 
categories of employment in which teaching is classed ; namely, 
trade, profession, and calling or vocation. The word trade is 
derived from tread. The original meaning of the word was to 
place things on the tread or track in order to pass them on. 
The word trade connotes bargaining and all that is implied in 
buying and selling. Those employments are trades, therefore, 
in which there is a direct relation between the work and the 
compensation for it. The tradesman works by the hour, or by 
the piece with the understanding that he will be paid in pro- 
portion to his work. The cash nexus is always a conscious 
relation between the employer and the employe. 

The term profession implies not only special preparation, but 
a universal recognition of the power and dignity which training 
gives the professional man, and which is maintained by a 
distinct code observed by each member of the profession as an 
obligation to his colleagues. There are certain standards which 
determine professional service. The essence of the professional 
spirit is love for the work as a means of self-expression and 



76 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

Joy in the doing of it to benefit otliers.^^^ The physician devotes 
himself unreservedly to his patients without thought of gain. 
The distinction between trade and profession is not in the 
character of the work, mental or manual, although the intel- 
lectual equipment is usually greater in the professional man, 
but in the motive behind the work. A trade aims primarily at 
personal gain, a profession at the exercise of powers beneficial 
to mankind.^^* 

A calling or vocation, in the large sense, is the work for 
which each man was created and endowed physically, intel- 
lectually, and temperamentally by an omnipotent, omniscient 
Creator. The idea of personal vocation follows from man's 
faith in a Personal God Whose every act is guided by infinite 
intelligence. As in Plato's Republic perfect justice would be 
attained when each man found the employment for which he 
was fitted by nature, so, according to the Christian philosophy 
of life, the ideally best conditions of society would be attained 
if each individual were fulfilling the Divine plan in his regard. 
In a restricted sense, a vocation is a spiritual call in the words 
of the Divine Master: ''One thing is wanting unto thee: go, 
sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt 
have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me,"^^^ which lays 
upon the individual the obligation to devote his powers and 
energies to form high virtue in himself and in others, as many 
as he can reach by his influence. The call to such a life is the 
meaning of the term, religious vocation. 

I. The Principle of Selection of Teachers of the State School 

At the outset we face the fundamental question : By what 
motive is the candidate for teaching impelled? What has 
attracted eack of the great body of five hundred eighty thousand 
teachers-^'' to enter the work? Have they been prompted by the 
spiritual law of service and sacrifice, or by the economic law of 
salary, a law essentially self-seeking? From the very nature 



223 Cf. Palmer, G. H., Trades and Professions. Boston, 1914, p. 33. Suz- 
zallo, H., "Reorganization of the Teaching Profession," National Educational 
Association Proceedings, 1913, p. 362. 

22* Cf. Palmer, G. H., Ideal Teacher. Boston, 1908, pp. 4. 5. Trades and 
Professions. Boston, 1914, p. 27. 

225 Mark, X, 21. 

226 Bureau of Education, unpublished statistics, 1914. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 77 

of the economic conditions which the public school teachers 
have to face to maintain economic independence, the salary- 
must be a conscious motive. They are not the philosopher 
kings of the Eepublic, who were not permitted to own gold or 
silver, that they might be free from the tyranny of things in 
order to devote themselves unreservedly to the task of ruling 
wisely. Dr. Prichett assumes that the motive of the state 
school teacher is unquestionably economic. In explaining the 
table of statistics of salaries of professors in American and 
Canadian institutes of collegiate rank, he says: "The table is 
notably defective in one respect — it omits entirely the statistics 
for Roman Catholic colleges and universities. This omission 
is unavoidable, however, since it is impossible to compare the 
cost of living in institutions where teaching is an economic 
function with that in an institution where the teachers serve 
in the main without salary."-^^ 

According to the attitude which the teacher has toward her 
work, she belongs to the trade or profession of teaching. 
Broadly speaking, there are three classes of teachers : 

1. Those who enter from economic compulsion. 

2. A class of no single specific characteristics, consisting of 
young men who enter the work temporarily as a stepping 
stone to one of the learned professions, and young women who 
not from economic compulsion, but for tlie sake of economic 
independence try teaching to see how they like it. 

3. Those who choose the work deliberately and equip them- 
selves for it. Dr. Coffman says: "In most cases the motive 
that starts teaching is economic pressure. The professional 
motive comes late. . . . Professionalization would come 
much sooner if more could be induced to enter teaching because 
of a desire to confer service."'^^^ "The transmission of our best 
culture is turned over to a group of the least favored and cul- 
tured because of its economic station."-'-' This is a severe 
arraignment of the motive which urges teachers to assume the 
responsibility of nurturing the citizens of the future. There is 



"7 Prichett, H. S., "Christian Denominations and Colleges," Educational 
Review, Vol. 36, p. 228. 
22S Op. cit., p. 54. 
229 Ibid., p. 70. 



78 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

no thought of personal fitness to prepare the child for his 
spiritual inheritance, no glimpse of a desire to assist him to 
actualize his possibilities and become a worthy member of 
society, nor of the motive of training him to the true greatness 
of disinterested service. Dr. Hollister says that those who 
enter the service of teaching should be volunteers, but that 
economic compulsion forces many into the work.^^° Dr. 
Palmer recognizes the existence of the same conditions : "Many 
men and still more women, take up teaching for a brief season, 
not through any laste or fitness for it, but because they find in 
it the readiest means of support."^^^ That the number of those 
who are forced by economic pressure to teach, constitute the 
majority of the teaching body is inferred from the statement: 
''The typical American female teacher early found the pressure 
both real and anticipated to earn her own living very heavy. 
As teaching was regarded as a highly respectable calling, and 
as the transfer from the schoolroom as a student to it as a 
teacher was but a step, she decided upon teaching."^^^ This 
class, with whom the financial motive is so markedly in the 
forefront of consciousness, must be classed as trade teachers. 

The teachers who have had professional training constitute 
between fifteen and twenty per cent of the entire teaching force 
of the State school.^^^ They may have been drawn to the pro- 
fession by its intrinsic attractions. Motives other than eco- 
nomic which operate favorably or adversely to influence a 
young man or woman to choose the profession of teaching are : 
(1) The esteem in which the profession is held; (2) the oppor- 
tunity which teaching offers to form youth to virtue; (3) the 
opportunity for self-expression or love of the work. 

The profession of teaching, considered purely as a career to 
attain dignity of position and honor, has little attraction. 
Neither in the public sentiment nor in the estimate of the teach- 
ing body is its status equal to that of law or medicine. In Ger- 
many the professional spirit is strong, and invests the work with 



'^^ Cf. Hollister, H. A., The Administration of Education in a Democracy. 
Boston, 1914, pp. 313-14. 

*" Palmer, G. H., Trades and Professions. Boston, 1914, p. 30. 

"2 Coffman, L. D., op. cit., p. 80. 

*'* Cf. Judd, C. H., "Normal School Extension-courses," National Educa- 
tional Association Proceedings, 1915, p. 771. Perry, A. C, op. cit., p. 59. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 79 

dignity. The lehrer has a definite status next in rank to the 
pfarrer. In Germany, France, and other European countries 
the teacher is an officer of the State, enjoying official privilege 
and popular esteem. In Sweden and Austria the teacher has 
an official grade; a high-school principal enjoys the same rank 
as a major-general.23* In the United States the teacher has no 
official standing. He is an employe, not an officer. A report of 
an English visitor to our school contained the statement : ''It 
certainly appears to the casual observer visiting the States that 
the teacher, as such, has little or no status; that is, his status 
is that of the man apart from his profession. His influence is 
determined by his personal qualities, and not by his profes- 
sion."^^" Educators who have made a careful and scholarly 
study of school administration give the following estimate of 
the teacher's status: "The traditional American teacher has 
been, in one sense, a sort of casual laborer. Along with this 
has naturally persisted the tendency for him to get out of this 
uncertain career as speedily as possible and to return to it 
only in times of stress."^^^ The small esteem and lack of 
dignity attached to the profession may be attributed, in part, 
to the lack of security and permanence of tenure. Dr. Prichett 
says : "Before we can hope for the best results in education, we 
must make a career for an ambitious man possible in the public 
schools."^" This is the rationale of his pension system for 
teachers. 

The determining motive of the teacher may be that of social 
uplift of the masses ; of making the ideal gleam along the pupil's 
pathway in order to lift him to a higher plane intellectually 
and morally. It is possible to conceive a corps of teachers 
actuated by this high motive, but the very nature of the eco- 
nomic problem which the public school teacher has to face is 
bound to make the question of salary a vital consideration. 
''However true it may be that the altruistic motive must influ- 
ence the man who chooses the life of teacher, it is still true that 



"* Cf. Perry, A. C, op. cit., p. 57. 

»«' Ibid., p. 58. 

•" Dutton, S. R., and Snedden, D., The Administration of Public Educa- 
tion in the United States. New York, 1912, p. 261. 

'*' Seventh Annua Report, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of 
Learning, 1912, p. 701 



80 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

one cannot consider the calling of the teacher apart from the 
economic function."^^^ 

The motive of self-expression and joy in the work is the 
motive of the truly professional teacher. It includes a small 
number of choice spirits like Dr. Palmer who says: '^Har- 
vard College pays me for doing what I would gladly pay it for 
allowing me to do."^^^ To most professionally trained teachers, 
however, the adequacy of salary is a significant consideration. 
''It is well to say that competent men and women will go into 
the occupation of teaching regardless of the money involved, 
but the economic demand is a primal one."^*° Economic condi- 
tions in the educational world cause sharp competition among 
teachers. "The only hope of an ambitious collegian is to put 
himself distinctly above his competitors in his chosen field. He 
must do as the business man does in analogous circumstances — 
increase his capital and make ready for a larger business.""^ 
This indicates a trend of affairs which should give men pause 
who realize that the teacher's point of view is the vital point 
for training in citizenship. The implications of the principle 
underlying the system are far-reaching. The key to the situa- 
tion is this: There is the same difficulty of harmonizing the 
spirit of competition which flows from the economic principle 
with the altruistic impulse and willingness for disinterested 
service as Huxley found in reconciling the cosmic process with 
the ethical process: "Social progress means a checking of the 
cosmic process and the substitution for it of another, which 
may be called the ethical process. . . . The ethical progress 
of society depends not on imitating the cosmic process, still 
less in running away from it, but in combating it."^*^ Yet the 
hope of capturing a good position is the incentive for an 
intending teacher to equip herself with professional training, 
and ambition is the stimulus to high performance of the daily 
task. Where the teachers will not prepare themselves for 



238 Prichett, H. S., "Christian Denominations and Colleges," Educational 
Review, Vol. 36, p. 227. 

239 The Ideal Teacher. Boston, 1908, p. 5. 

2'"* Ryan, W. C, Report of Commissioner of Education, 1913, p. 11. 
2^1 Russell, J. E., Organization and Administration of Teachers' College, Vol. 
I, p. 42. 

2« Evolution and Ethics. New York, 1896, pp. 81, 83. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 81 

greater eflficiency without hope of adequate reward, there tlie 
spirit of sacrifice is wanting. As a matter of sound business 
policy, the administrative authorities apply to the employ- 
ment of teachers the business principles which obtain in the 
commercial world; they make the salaries depend upon merit 
and efficiency, knowing that the incentive which actuates n 
teacher to high performance of duty is the assurance that pro 
motion and increase of salary will be the reward of increased 
efficiency; and, conversely, that loss of position will be the 
outcome of incompetency.^*^ 

The financial relation between the teacher and the j)upil is 
sometimes of conscious importance, as is shown by the boy of 
untrained impulses who interprets tlie teacher's obligations 
inhering in the relationship as those of an employe. "My 
father pays you to teach me; he will make you promote me," 
is iiis threat to the teacher. The pupil is quick to make deduc- 
tions. The teacher who works for a salary cannot without 
explanation establish inductively from her own life the prin- 
ciple of self-sacrifice. Extrinsic reasons for teaching, such as 
the support of dependent relatives, may be, and often are, of 
such a character as to make the w^ork one of self-sacrifice. An 
important question here is, does the motive animate the teacher 
with the love of service? "Self -surrender will not be made until 
a rational conviction is created that in some way the interests 
of self and the public good are in accord with each other. It is 
beyond the power of the State to supply this conviction, for it 
can give no assurance that he that loseth his life in self-sacrifice 
shall find it again. Apart from extra-mundane motives, it is not 
to be expected that duty will have supremacy over selfishness, 
as was the case before the energies of the personal life were 
aroused by industrialism. The State system not only fails to 
give a rational motive for sacrifice, but cannot teach sacrifice by 
example through the salaried teacher."^** Yet the task that 
lies at the heart of the school is to give the growing youth a 
greater readiness each to give his best to the common good. 
Halfway measures will not overcome the desire for personal 



2" Cf. Green, C. F., "The Promotion of Teachers on the Basis of Merit and 
EflBciency," School and Society, Vol. I, p. 706. 

^** Wainwright, S. H., "The Contribution to Japan through Education," 
Board of Education, M. E. Chiirch, S., 1908, p. 106. 



82 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

gain and the craving for material satisfactions. Nothing less 
than the cultivation of a principle which emphasizes the spir- 
itual power of man over mere impulse and desire, raising him 
to a higher level of life, will show him the joj of sacrifice. If 
we would make true citizens, we must teach the children in 
the schools the joy that comes from true service. A man is not 
free from the bonds of temptation to personal aggrandizement 
until he has felt the joy of self-devotion and self-surrender. 

II. The Preparation of the Intending Teacher 

The teacher requires both mental equipment and moral fit- 
ness. His training for the profession should include factors, 
therefore, chosen deliberately to attain both of these require- 
ments. It has been the policy of American State education to 
provide for the academic and professional training only. Yet 
ideals and habits of character are no less important to those 
who are to mould the future citizens. "It is no less a duty to 
plan and strive for a character that is sound and noble and 
worthy of imitation by our pupils than to observe and listen 
and read with a view to acquiring knowledge and skill in 
imparting knowledge to others."^*'' 

Various types of institutions have been founded to prepare 
teachers. These institutions are: (1) City training schools; 
(2) normal training high schools; (3) State normal schools; 
(4) private normal schools ; (5) teachers' colleges; (6) schools 
of education in connection with universities. Of these agencies 
we select the State normal school as the typical training school 
for the State teacher. This is an integral part of the State 
school system, supported and directed intimately by the State 
according to its policy of training teachers for its own instru- 
ment, the State school, which it has instituted and consistently 
supports to further its own purposes. 

For the year ending June, 1914, two hundred and thirty-five 
public normal schools in the United States reported to the 
Bureau of Education in Washington. The total number of 
students in the regular training courses of teachers in these 
schools was eighty-nine thousand five hundred thirty-seven. Of 



2« Ladd. G. T., op. cit., p. 41. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 83 

these two hundred thirty-five normal schools, one hundred 
seventy-seven are state normals, with an attendance of eighty- 
four thousand ninety-seven students.-*" 

To define the work of a normal school, as to define that of 
any institution, it is important to know its own conception of 
its purpose and to look at its development historically and 
functionally. The purpose is fairly well treated in a Massachu- 
setts State normal school catalogue : "The design of the normal 
school is strictly professional; that is, to prepare in the best 
possible manner its pupils for the work of organizing, govern- 
ing, and teaching in the public schools of the Commonwealth. 
To this end, there must be the most thorough knowledge, first, 
of the branches of learning required to be taught in the schools ; 
second, of the best methods of teaching these branches; and 
third, of right mental training,"^*^ 

The American normal school was founded at Lexington, 
Massachusetts, in 1839 to train teachers to teach f*^ to train so 
that teaching power might be developed in the person taught. 
Although at first it gave little more than instruction in the 
academic subjects that the teachers needed for their immediate 
work, the purpose from the beginning was to develop in the 
student-teachers technical and professional ideals.-*^ It is, 
therefore, strictly a technical school. With but few exceptions, 
the normal schools in the United States have been markedly 
Pestalozzian in character.^^'' There have been two distinct 
types of normal schools : first, the early Massachusetts Normal 
School, in which emphasis was placed upon thoroughness in the 
common branches; second, the Oswego (New York) State Nor- 
mal School, which stressed with major emphasis the methods 
and practice of teaching. The first type gave an accurate 
analysis of subject matter; the second, an orderly and logical 
arrangement of the elements of knowledge for the purpose of 
presentation to secure discipline and development of mental 



**• Report of Commissioner of Education, 1914, Vol. II, p. 349. 

*" Catalogue of the Worcester State Normal School, 1916, p. 7. 

'" Cf. Gordy, J. P., Rise of the Normal School Idea in the United Statts. 
Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 8, 1891, p. 47. 

"• Cf. Ibid., p. 40. 

"0 Cf. Jones, E. E., "The Relation of Normal Schools to Departments aad 
Schools of Education in Colleges and Universities," School Review Monograph, 
No. 11. Chicago, 1912, p. 59. 



84 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

faculty. This type, formed specifically upon Pestalozzian prin- 
ciples, has given more attention to educational theory than has 
the Massachusetts type.^^^ In each of these characteristic 
types, importance is attached to the reexamination of common 
school studies which the student-teacher has completed during 
her last years of high school. Arithmetic is studied in the light 
of algebra and geometry; grammar is reviewed in the light of 
rhetoric and foreign languages. To study the elementary 
branches thus constructively is to discover their interrelations 
and processes of derivation from higher sources. This con- 
structive study gives the teacher a knowledge of the laws of the 
subject and tends to make her observant and reflective of 
methods.^^^ 

The efficiency of normal school training to develop the per- 
sonality of the teacher is conditioned by four factors — first, the 
entrance requirements of the candidates; second, the curricu- 
lum; third, the faculty; fourth, the student life. The normal 
school has no national standardization, and, therefore, there is 
no homogeneous type. Those of each State or group of States 
have their own peculiarities and have adopted different stand- 
ards of admission. According to the entrance requirements 
for a Massachusetts Normal School, the student must have 
attained the age of seventeen years if a man, and sixteen, if a 
woman, and must be free from physical defects, and present 
a certificate of good moral character and evidence of grad- 
uation from a high school or euqivalent preparation.^^^ For 
entrance to a Wisconsin State Normal School, the regents 
require good health and completion of a four-year high school 
course or four years' successful experience as a teacher, with a 
first-grade certificate for not less than one year or satisfactory 
examination in a great number of specified high school 
studies.^^* 

The curriculum furnishes the knowledge content of the 



251 Cf. Ramsey, C. C, "Normal Schools in the United States," Education 
Vol. 17, p. 234. 

252 Cf. Harris, W. T., "The Future of the Normal School," Educational 
Review, Vol. Ill, pp. 5, 6. 

253 Catalogue of Worcester, Massachusetts, State Normal School, 1916, pp. 7, 8. 
»" Cf. Bulletin, Milwaukee State Normal, 1916, p. 19. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 85 

teacher's training. The committee of the National Educational 
Association on normal schools in 1899 recommended the follow- 
ing course toward which normal schools should aim : 

"1. 3Ian in himself, embracing: physiology, psychology, 
ethics, religion. 

''2. Man in the race, embracing : history, anthropology, litera- 
ture, general psychology. 

"3. 3Ian in nature, embracing: physics, chemistry, biology, 
mathematics, physiography, astronomy. 

"4. Man in society, embracing : sociology, government, home 
economics. 

"5. Man in expression, embracing: language, drawing, con- 
struction, physical culture, music, art. 

"6. Man in school, embracing: philosophy of education, 
science and art of teaching, history of education, school 
economics."^^^ 

The actual content of the curriculum differs widely from 
the ideal. While the courses of study of the various normals in 
the same State are uniform, outlined as they are by State 
officials or by the joint action of the presidents of the various 
schools, those of the normals of different States vary widely. 
"•The normal school in the city and the one in the mining 
region and the one in the agricultural region will all differ 
much in their curricula and in their creational agencies for 
instruction."-^^ The United States commissioner of Educa- 
tion, in his report of 1910, states that the leading normal 
schools offer four-j'^ear degree courses which are cultural as 
well as professional, parallel to regular college courses; that 
they provide for specialization in manual arts, domestic 
economy, agriculture, and the natural sciences,^" In ac- 
cordance with this new normal school movement to offer col- 
lege work, many normal schools in the Middle West have 
provided curricula of four-year college courses, justifying their 
policy on the ground that their legitimate function is to train 
teachers for every phase of the common school, and that the 



265 "Function of the Normal School," National Educational Association 
Proceedings, 1899, p. 841. 

2M Kirk, J. R., "The Twentieth-Century Normal School," National Educa- 
tional Association Proceedings, 1914, p. 526. 

2" Cf. Report, Vol. II, p. 1079. 



86 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

training of a high school teacher demands the scholarship of a 
college curriculum. In 1907 the normal schools of Illinois were 
authorized to grant professional degrees.^^^ In 1909 the Iowa 
legislature changed the name of the State Normal School at 
Cedar Falls to the State Teachers' College, with power to con- 
fer degrees. Since then a full college course of four years has 
been maintained.^^^ In 1911 the Wisconsin legislature empow- 
ered the normal schools of its State to offer the ''substantial 
equivalent of the instruction given in the first two years of a 
college course," thereby making them junior colleges.^^'' In a 
great many state normal schools, however, the curriculum con- 
sists of a two-year course following a high school education. 
In order to give specific and definite training to teachers of 
each of the departments of elementary education, primary, 
intermediate, and grammar grades, the last product in the 
evolution of the normal school is a group or core of subjects 
as the foundation of the teacher's professional preparation. 
Supplementary to this are differential groups for the primary, 
intermediate, and grammar grades, and in those normal schools 
equipped for the training of high school teachers there is a high 
school differential. The total number of units required is 
twenty-four; one unit represents twelve weeks of study, five 
hours per week. In the Billingsham Normal School, Wash- 
ington, representing the Pacific Coast section, the core includes 
fifteen and seventy-five hundredths units; the high grade dif- 
ferential and the low grade differential each eight and twenty- 
five hundredths units. In the Cedar Falls Teachers' College, 
Iowa, the core includes ten units; the high grade and the low 
grade differentials each fourteen units. In the Normal School 
of Ypsilanti, Michigan, the core includes eight units; the high 
grade and the low grade differentials each, sixteen units. Two 
subjects only, psychology and history of education, are con 
stants of the core of studies required in each of these normal 
schools. Each of these two subjects varies from a standard 



**» Felmley, D., "The New Normal School Movement," Educational Re- 
viev>. Vol. XLV, p. 411. 

*" Cf. Bolton, F. E., "The New Normal School Movement," Educational 
Renew. Vol. XLVI, p. 60. 

*^ Cf. Plantz, S., "The New Normal School Movement," Educational 
Rtnew. Vol. XLV, p. 199. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 87 

amount by only two-tenths of a unit. The cores vary among 
themselves from eight units to sixteen units.^^^ The dififerential 
course is recommended to make the normal school graduate 
more immediately effective in her work in giving her specific 
plans and habits of procedure for the grades that she has chosen 
to teach. Psychology is a basic study for principles and 
methods, and, next to practice teaching, contributes to success 
in teaching.2«2 

In the construction of the curriculum, academic training is 
sacrificed in some degree to special grade methods and prob- 
lems. "The fact is that most normal schools are, under present 
conditions, forced to restrict their efforts mainly to imparting 
"knowledge of the subjects to be taught and the methods of 
teaching."^^^ If the curriculum be a criterion of the character 
of the content of instruction, it may be inferred that the same 
conditions obtain at the present time. It looks at the work of 
teaching purely from the viewpoint of the intellect. The char- 
acter of the training of the normal school is determined by the 
required qualifications of the teachers of each State. Academic 
and professional preparation only have been demanded for 
preliminary certification.* Yet Dr. Eussell maintains that an 
acquaintance with the process of the formation of ideals, the 
development of will, and the growth of character should be a 
part of the teacher's equipment.^®* The curriculum concerns 
itself but slightly with these essentials of efficiency in teaching. 
Regarding the present status of moral education in institutions 
for the training of teachers, Dr. Bagley says : 

"1. Explicit instruction in the principles of moral education 
is provided for by separate courses in relatively few universi- 
ties and normal schools. Such courses are found much less 
frequently in normal schools than in colleges and universities. 

"2. Courses in ethics are offered in seventy per cent of the 



*" Cf. Maxwell, G. E., "Differentiation of Courses in Normal Schoola," 
National Educational Association Proceedings, 1913, pp. 536—539. 

2" Cf. Meriam, J. L., Normal School Education and Efficiency in Teaching. 
New York, 1905, p. 53. 

2" Russell, J. E., "The Training of Teachers," Teachers' College Record. 
Vol. I, p. 8. 

*Cf. Updegraff, H., Teachers' Certificates Issued under General State Laws 
and Regulations: U. S. Bureau of Education, 1910. Passim. 

»* Cf. ibid., p. 48. 



88 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

colleges and universities and in twenty-two per cent of the 
normal schools. In neither type of institution are the courses 
in ethics frequently required of intending teachers. 

"3. Instruction in the principles and methods of moral edu- 
cation seems to be chiefly provided for by the courses in the 
history and theory of education and in school management. 
Although more than a majority of the instructors in these 
institutions believe that in the lower schools indirect moral 
instruction through literature, history, and science has a very 
important place, there seems to be little explicit effort to 
emphasize in presenting these subjects to intending teachers 
the methods through which their moral values may be realized. 
It is to be inferred that this is done mainly in the instruction 
which is provided in the history of education and the theory of 
education, and possibly also in connection with observation and 
practice teaching. 

"4. A majority of those engaged in the teaching of teachers 
for the elementary and secondary schools place the greatest 
emphasis upon school life as a source of moral education, 
although indirect but systematic instruction through literature, 
history, and science is also deemed to be of very great impor- 
tance. A strong minority favors explicit instruction through 
principle and precept, illustrated by concrete cases. The pre- 
vailing opinion is that religious instruction in any form has 
no place in the elementary and secondary schools. 

"5. There is noticeable among many of those engaged in the 
training of teachers a feeling that the problems of moral edu- 
cation are particularly intangible and elusive, and that a con- 
certed effort to entangle at least some of the strands in this 
web is essential to the next step in educational progress."265 

The fact that the normal school curriculum, shaped by state 
authorities to prepare teachers to train the youth of our country 
for conscientious and devoted citizenship, contains no subject 
emphasizing moral training is significant. ''The subject [of 
moral education] calls for special training and a special gift on 
the part of the teacher. It is the height of absurdity to sup- 
pose that geography or history needs special preparation and 



265 Bagley, W. C, "Training Public School Teachers," Religious Education, 
1911. Vol. V, pp. 633-34. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 89 

that morals do not."-''^ Ethical instruction, unless exemplified 
in daily conduct, is futile. The foundation of character is to 
be laid not by enlightening the intellect so much as by training 
the emotions and the will ; yet to give moral education a place 
in the curriculum would be a recognition of the importance of 
the moral concept and of the value of the inspiring example of 
virtue, which would tend to preserve a true sense of value and 
would demonstrate concretely that the development of the 
moral character of the pupils is a part of the work of every 
teacher. 

The education of the normal school is purely secular. One of 
the primal sources of the inspirational aspect of education is 
the school studies, especially history, social science, literature^ 
and art. The convictions that are formed and the ideals that 
are awakened and cultivated are not vitalized by religion. 
How far the ideal elements of humanity possess the teacher, 
enabling her to see in all the subjects that she teaches man's 
effort toward ideal living, and how vital she will make this 
teaching, depends upon how far she realizes the seriousness of 
her task and upon her own ethical and spiritual vitality. At 
best, these ideals are only moral ideals. "Amid all the sickly 
talk about 'ideals' which has become the commonplace of our 
age, it is well to remember that so long as they are dreams of 
future possibility and not faiths in present realities, so long as 
they are a mere self -painting of the yearning spirit and not its 
personal surrender to immediate communion with an Infinite 
Perfection, they have no more solidity and steadiness than 
floating air-bubbles, gay in the sunshine and broken by the 
passing wind."^^^ Nothing can equal religion to give vigor to 
ideals. That the modern world expects so much from mere 
intellectual instruction is the logical result of the rationalistic 
philosophy. When any evil threatens society, the remedy pro- 
posed is the addition of a new study, a further enrichment of 
the curriculum. When any virtue is to be cultivated, as patri- 
otism or community service, it is introduced as a subject of 
instruction in the schools. Yet educators know that conduct 



2^ Chubb, P., "Direct Moral Education," Religious Education Association, 
Vol. VI, p. 109. 

**^ Martineau, James, A Study of Religion. New York, 1888, p. 12. 



90 Pedagogical Value of WilUngnes8 

and character are attained under discipline which is effective 
only amid conditions where appropriate feeling and guidance 
of the will are present. With religion excluded, the normal 
school lacks the most potent influence to nourish that high 
idealism and altruism which spring up in the heart of every 
young person and which are a great force of spiritual energy. 

The great inspirational force of education is the teacher. All 
that has been said in Chapter IV on the potency of the person- 
ality of the teacher as a moulding influence of character has 
application here, but with a lesser force, as the plasticity of 
the student is less. As with the child, however, so with the 
normal school student, character is developed in contact with a 
live spiritual soul. The committee of the Report of Normal 
Schools in 1899 stressed with major emphasis the importance of 
having great teachers, recognizing that the faculty is the soul 
of the institution. The requisite characteristics were named in 
the following order: first, character; second, teaching ability, 
defined as the ability to inspire to thought, feeling, and action, 
the kind of work which makes for character; third, scholar- 
ship; fourth, culture; fifth, a professional spirit and profes- 
sional ethics — a spirit of loyalty to the institution to make it a 
potent force for good.^"^ 

It is impossible to make even a general statement of how far 
the actual qualifications of the large staff of normal school 
teachers correspond to this ideal. That the moral character of 
the normal school instructor is unimpeachable is presupposed. 
How active his appreciation is of the value of a deep, warm 
moral sentiment, and how intimate his conviction that self- 
realization means self-transcendence and the habitual willing- 
ness for self-renunciation and self-sacrifice, cannot be stated. 
In a teacher these are qualities absolutely essential, for which 
there is no quantitative measurement. That the normal school 
instructor has taken over and made organic the habit of 
subordinating his personal gain to the common good, forgetting 
his own narrow interests in his devotion to the larger ends, 
could scarcely be expected from the economic motive which 
impelled him to enter the profession and from the ambitious 



268 Cf "Function of Normal School," National Educational Association 
Proceedings, 1899, p. 838. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 91 

impulse which urges him to reach out to capture the highest 
salary. "As things are now, there is severe competition for 
every desirable post. . . . The fact that the competition 
for the better class of schools is so disagreeably keen is the 
surest guarantee of a better system of training teachers. . . . 
It is precisely this condition of affairs which makes possible for 
the first time in America a serious consideration of ideal 
methods of training leaders."^*^^ Yet the teacher who is form- 
ing those who are to inspire high ideals of citizenship in that 
training ground of our nation, the State school, whose only 
reason for existence is to teach the youth to be patriotic citi- 
zens, certainly should realize in her own character and express 
in her own professional work her appreciation of the value of 
the fine quality of disinterestedness. If the teacher must have 
what Dr. Palmer calls the "aptitude of vicariousness,"^^" or the 
capacity of reproducing her qualities in her pupils, we are 
warranted in expecting to find her a living exemplar of that 
essential mark of citizenship, willingness for disinterested ser- 
vice, and, therefore, showing forth in her own conduct that 
community interests are greater than individual ambitions. 
Immeasurably more effective than special knowledge or rational 
moral teaching is the example of the teacher making personal 
sacrifices for the community. Dr. Bagley sounds a true note 
in the words: "If I were dictator with absolute power, the 
very first thing that I would do would be to make normal- 
school teaching the most attractive kind of teaching. I would 
have it so attractive that the very best men and women would 
seek its service. . . . The institutions that train the teach- 
ers for the elementary schools should be the mosit significant 
factor in their efficiency."^^^ The weak point in the situation is 
the weak point inherent in the State school system ; the eco- 
nomic pressure which is in the forefront of consciousness is well 
calculated to obscure and to dull the high motive of service 
and self-surrender. 

The daily life of the student in the normal school is a vital 



2«» Russell, J. E., op. cit., p. 42. 
*'o Ideal Teacher. Boston, 1908. p. 8. 

"1 Bagley, W. C, "The Question of Federal Aid for Normal SchooU," 
National Educational Association Proceedings, 1915, p. 768. 



92 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

factor in the preparation of the intending teacher to cultivate 
willingness for disinterested service in pupils. This phase of 
teacher training may be considered under two aspects : 

1. The motivation of the students to professional training 
and their moral earnestness. 

2. The extra-curricular activities. 

1. The Motivation 

During the year ending June, 1914, 84,097 students attended 
the State Normal Schools, of these three-fourths were women.^''^ 
The median age of the normal school students in nineteen years ; 
eighty-five per cent are between seventeen and twenty-one,^^^ 
the period when personality begins to crystallize into permanent 
form ; when habits of truthfulness, purity, loyalty, self-reliance, 
and self-devotion should become rooted in character. Until the 
last decade when some of the normal schools began to offer 
college courses parallel with the professional curriculum, the 
standard of values of the normal school was sharply distinctive 
and operated as a selective agency, determining the quality of 
its students. It was strictly a technical school and attracted 
only those who wished to qualify for teaching. The character 
of the student body was, therefore, dominated by the single 
purpose of acquiring professional training and such academic 
training as would contribute to teaching efficiency. If the in- 
tending teachers had the high motive of using their energies 
in the upbuilding of the characters of the youth of the land, they 
were students of high seriousness and of altruistic spirit. What- 
ever diverse antecedents and differences in personal ability 
there might be, it would be reasonable to expect them to have 
fine moral qualities. No such controlling aim has been found, 
but, instead, the motive of economic pressure. "Since teachers 
are made because of economic problems and motives, and not 
because of deliberate selection and professional zeal, the rising 
and falling fortunes of the individual student come to have a 
large controlling determination of the entrance upon and con- 
tinuance of teaching."^^* Teaching is not looked upon as a 

272 Report of Commissioner of Education, 1914, p. 349. 
2" Cf. Coffman, op. cit., p. 18. 

2'« Buchner, E. F., "Graduate and Undergraduate Work in Education," 
The School Review Monograph, No. 11. Chicago, 1912, p. 4. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 93 

career, but a make-shift or stepping-stone to a better position. 
Doctor Coffman's conclusions derived from his study of a 
careful census of five thousand two hundred fifteen teachers, 
''a random sampling" from rural, town, and city schools, may 
be considered fairly typical of the American teacher. He has 
shown statistically the inexperience and shifting character of 
the State school. Fifty-six per cent are twenty-five years of age 
or under ;"^ the average teaching career of men teachers is seven 
years; of women, four years.^^s jjj iqi^ there were five hun- 
dred eighty thousand fifty-eight teachers in the elementary and 
secondary State schools. Of this number, 80.2 per cent, or four 
hundred sixty-four thousand forty-four, were women.-" From 
these data, it may be inferred that 50 per cent have not had 
more than four years' experience; that there are more than 
one hundred thirty thousand new recruits every year, and, 
therefore, at the beginning of the school year nearly 25 per 
cent of the teachers have had only one j^ear's experience and 
an equal number have had no experience. Fifty per cent 
have had only a high school education or less.^^* "The median 
American teacher, irrespective of location and position, has 
had less than four years of experience. . . . The world 
estimates that the maximum eft'ect of experience has usually 
been attained in six years. . . . The possibility of lifting 
the great body of workers in teaching to the plane of a true 
profession is thus restricted by the fact that more than fifty 
per cent leave teaching before they realize the cumulative effect 
of experience in teaching efficiency." "^'* The greater proportion 
come from families whose average income is less than eight 
hundred dollars a year.^*° It may be inferred that many have 
gone into the work from necessity rather than from choice. The 
seriousness of purpose of those of low economic status is not 
questioned, but that the purpose is instinct with self-sacrifice 
may be questioned. More often than otherwise, the motive in 
entering upon teaching is to use it as a temporary means of 



"» Cf . op. cit., p. 25. 
2'6 Cf. ihid., pp. 25, 26. 

"" Cf. Bureau of Education unpublished statistics, 1914. 
2'« Cf. Coffman, op. cit, p. 32. 

^' Coffman, L. D., "Mobility of the Teaching Population in Relation to 
the Economy of Time,"iVa<iona/ Education Association, 1913, pp. 235-236. 
280 Cf. ihid., pp. 61, 65. 



94 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

earning a livelihood. Men leave the work to study law or medi- 
cine, to become insurance agents, or to enter government serv- 
ice; the women, to marry, to become trained nurses, stenog- 
raphers or book-keepers. Doctor Snedden says that 75 per cent 
of our teachere, if not more, are young people who spend but a 
few years in the service and then seek other occupations, in- 
cluding those of home-miaking for women.^^^ The fact that a 
candidate for teaching presents herself at the normal school for 
training is no guarantee that she has made a choice of the pro- 
fession, nor can such an inference be made. 

With the extension of the new normal school movement to 
transform normal schools into teachers' colleges and into junior 
colleges, the character of the student body has somewhat 
changed. While the normal school still stands primarily for 
professional training, the purpose of the student has become 
obscured and indefinite. Some enter to take the college course 
with no intention of preparing to teach, but to acquire personal 
culture, or for some economic purpose other than teaching. 
This is especially true of those normal schools which offer the 
junior college course, as the eight State normal schools of Wis- 
consin. With such reconstruction of curriculum, there is small 
basis for the inference that the student of such a normal school 
has a distinct professional aim. 

2. The Extra-curricular Activities. 

The normal school encourages student organizations, as ath- 
letics, debating, literary, and oratorical clubs, glee clubs, 
camera clubs, and others. Its general attitude toward this 
phase of school life is stated in the following : "Every student 
should affiliate himself with at least one organization ; he should 
be able to feel that he 'belongs' not only to the school, but to 
some of its more intimately organized life where he comes 
closely in touch with at least some of his schoolmates."^®^ The 
student organizations are the socializing factor of the school to 
develop the sense of responsibility and cooperation. One of 
the most important outside activities of student life is athletics, 



"1 Cf. Snedden, D., "Tests of Teaching EflSciency," Educational Review, 
Vol. XLV, p. 515. 

«» The Milwaukee State Normal Bulletin, 1916, p. 13. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 95 

which is frequently raised to undue prominence. That its 
highest moral value as a student influence may be realized, it 
should be conducted in the amateur spirit. At some of the 
normal schools, well-paid coaches have been engaged in addition 
to the physical director, and all the forms of college athletics 
have been organized.^®^ The ideals of a professional coach to 
whom success is sometimes the primary aim, and the method 
of attaining it, secondary, are not the ideals that should domi- 
nate normal school athletics. 

The other normal school organizations are of a social or quasi- 
intellectual character. Some of these have an important func- 
tion as a unifying force, binding the young people in student 
fellowship and engendering a community spirit. Under the 
direction of a member of the faculty, a limited number of such 
societies should be efl;ective in creating a wholesome social 
spirit. There is good reason to fear, however, that the great 
variety of unsupenised student activities which exists becomes 
a real menace to student life in causing a dissipation of ener- 
gies and leading to a lack of studiousness. "With the freedom 
of their fraternity or club life and the absence of faculty and 
parental restraint, have come constant distractions from study 
in connection with a succession, throughout the year, of class, 
fraternity and intercollegiate games of football, baseball, basket 
ball, tennis, golf, chess; of rowing, track and athletic meets; 
of glee, mandolin, banjo and other musical or dramatic clubs 
or associations; of receptions and other social functions; of 
literary dailies, weeklies, monthlies and annuals; and even of 
intercollegiate debates." ^^* The grounds of fear for normal 
school extra-curricular activities become more serious as the 
normal school takes over the college curriculum. These condi- 
tions are the concomitant, incident to the expansion of the 
curriculum and sometimes take a hedonistic tendency which, 
not to count its permanent effect upon character, is detrimental 
to good work in the school.^®' In so far as a student is guided 



"» Cf. Plantz, S., "The New Normal School Movement," Educational 
Review. Vol. XLV, p. 200. 

"* Birdseye, C. F., Individual Training in Our Colleges. New York, 1907, 
p. 181. Cf. Clark, C. U., "What Are the Colleges For?" North American 
Review, Vol. CCIV, p. 418. 

"* Cf. Black, W. H., "The New Normal School Movement," Educational 
Review, Vol. XLV, p. 305. 



96 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

by utilitarian motives, lie is immune to the danger, and many 
normal school students are of this type. A great many, how- 
ever, are young and away from home restraints for the first 
time. Their characters have not yet taken set, and they are 
over-sensitive to the call of companionship; their minds be- 
come filled with a multitude of transient impressions which 
waste their time and energy. The function of these organiza- 
tions is to satisfy the instinct for human relationship and 
thereby develop the fraternal and community spirit. These, 
however, are only the means. The vivifying principle is want- 
ing. With the exclusion of religion from the normal school as 
a State school, the source of the highest motives and loftiest 
ideals for conduct, and of influence for right human relation- 
ships, is excluded. "It is the religious factors which constitute 
the most important of all aids to moral development whether 
found within or without the sphere of morality itself." ^^^ The 
most powerful influence to convert the potential power of will 
into the dynamic force of character is lost. "Is there any en- 
thusiasm of goodness that can be excessive or unnatural in those 
who realize what it is to be, in very truth, 'children of God'? 
If, as a native of Tarsus, the Apostle could not help saying with 
a glow of pride that he was a 'citizen of no mean city,' how is 
it possible, without a flush of higher joy, for anyone to know 
himself a denizen of the city and commonwealth of God?^®^ 
The tremulous purpose has an infinite Ally. The self-strain is 
exchanged for self-surrender." ^^^ The normal school which 
undertakes to train the teacher lacks this vital power, this 
essential factor of education for which moral education is not 
a possible substitute. 

The widespread awakening to the need of giving teachers the 
point of view and the spirit of service to equip them to train 
for citizenship has not substantially affected normal school 
ideals. The contributions to the curriculum have been chiefly 
to secure vocational efficiency. This is one essential element of 
preparation for citizenship. The ethical element is equally 
essential, and unless personal efficiency is developed in an 



286 Wundt, W., Facts of the Moral Life, translated by J. Gulliver. New 
York, 1897, p. 226. 

^" Martineau, J., op. cit., p. 27. 
"8 Ibid., p. 22. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 97 

altruistic spirit, it may be as much opposed to the spirit of 
service as the cosmic process is irreconcilable with the ethical 
process.^''^ 

III. AGENCIES FOR HEIGHTENING WILLINGNESS FOR DISINTERESTED 
SERVICE IN THE STATE TEACHER WHILE IN TRAINING 

Efficiency is maintained only by continual growth. Teaching 
efficiency, therefore, calls for progressive improvement of per- 
sonal equipment. As the teacher's requisite equipment is both 
intellectual and moral, personal training throughout the teach- 
er's career should be continued along both these lines. "The 
training that produced a satisfactory teacher for 1890 or for 
1900, or even for 1910, will not suffice for a teacher for 1915 
or 1920. The teacher must know more, and her ideals for public 
service must have expanded along with her j'ears of service. 
Teachers are in no v/ay exempt from the same conditions which 
produce inefficiency in other professional workers." -®° The 
State authorities recognize a threefold need of agencies for the 
improvement of teachers while in service: (1) To give training, 
however meagre, to the eighty per cent and more of the entire 
teaching body of the State schools who enter upon the work 
without any preparation.^^^ (2) To supplement the training 
received before the teacher entered active service which, there- 
fore, lacked the necessary basis of experience. (3) To maintain 
the level of efficiency of those who have had both training and 
experience by stimulating to further improvement in order to 
equip the teacher for the changing character of the demands 
and standards in education.-^^ "The principles and practices, 
the theory and art, of education are constantly undergoing, in 
common with all other phases of civilization, modification and 
development. Likewise, the field of education in which in- 
struction is given, and the habits which education seeks to form, 
are always changing. ... No matter what the initial 



«* Cf. Huxley, T., op. cit., pp. 81-84. 

^'o Cubberley, E. P., Public School Administration. Boston, 1916, pp. 
282-33. 

«i Cf. Judd, C. H., op. cit., p. 77; Perry, A. C, The Status of the Teachtr. 
Boston, 1912, p. 59. 

"2 Cf. Dutton and Snedden, Administration of Public Education in th* 
United States. New York, 1908, pp. 276-77. Cf. Brown. E. E., "Introduc- 
tion" in Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service. Cf. Ruediger, 
W. C, United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin, No. .", 1911, p. 5. 



98 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

equipment of a teacher may be, he should be progressively eflS- 
cient during his entire period of service." ^^^ 

The agencies for improvement of teachers while in service fall 
into the following classes: (1) Teachers' institutes. (2) Sum- 
mer sessions at normal schools and universities. (3) Teachers' 
meetings. (4) Teachers' associations, (5) Reading circles. 
(6) Sabbatical years. (7) Teachers' federations. 

Historically, the teachers' institute is coincident with the 
normal school. "In 1839 Henry Barnard assembled at Hartford, 
Connecticut, twenty-six young men and formed them into a 
class. They were taught six weeks by able lecturers and teach- 
ers and had the advantage of observation in the public schools 
of Hartford." -^^ The name "institute" was not used, however, 
until 1843, by J. S. Denman, Superintendent of New York, in 
which State, as well as in most of the New England States, the 
movement become popular. In the same year Horace Mann 
organized the first institute in Massachusetts and met the ex- 
penses with a benefaction of |1,000 placed at his disposal. The 
attendance at each institute was restricted to one hundred 
teachers, fifty male and fifty female. That each was paid |2 
for attending two full weeks is evidence that the economic 
motive for professional growth was in the educational con- 
sciousness at the time. After that, the legislature made ap- 
propriations for the instructors' salaries and the practice of 
paying the teachers for attending was discontinued in that 
place.^^^ The princii)le of direct compensation for attendance 
still obtains. "In most States teachers who attend an institute 
during the term of their regular employment are allowed to do 
so on pay the same as for teaching. Minnesota seems to be the 
only exception," ^^^ In twenty-nine States the regular salary 
is allowed. In seven or eight States, as in Indiana and Ohio, 
the teachers receive regular pay for attendance even when the 
institute is held in vacation, and in some States the induce- 
ment of a certain per cent increase of the average standing is 



*'' Updegraff, H., "The Improvement of Teachers in Service of City 
Schools," National Educational Association Proceedings, 1911, p. 434. 

"* Smart, J. H., Teachers' Institute, United States Bureau of Education, 
No. 2, 1885, p. 35. 

^'^ Cf. Ruediger, W. C, Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Ser- 
vice, op. cit., p. 11. 

»« HoUister. H. A., op. cit.. p. 179. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 99 

offered. -^^ In Massachusetts and Maine the legislature pro- 
vides that if a county association of teachers hold an annual 
meeting of not less than one day for the purpose of promoting 
the interests of the public school, it shall receive |50 from the 
Commonwealth.-^^ The economic incentive to secure attend- 
ance which has been widely adopted by the States is not well 
calculated to produce the soil which grows the fine flower of 
sacrifice and service. The following types of exercise are found 
in all teachers' institutes : classes for the study and the review 
of subject matter; lessons on devices, method, applied 
psychology; and inspirational lectures to engender enthusiasm 
for teaching.-^'' The teachers' institutes are attended chiefly 
by rural school teachers and by young inexperienced persons 
who are preparing to enter rural school service ; scarcely at all 
by city elementary school teachers and almost never by high 
school teachers. The institute serves three purposes: (1) A 
professional training school for teachers. (2) A teachers' 
meeting in which the members are informed of the educational 
policies of the State or county and of what is new in edu- 
cational thought. (3) A teachers' association for social ends. 
Forty-three States make legal provision for institutes.^"" It 
is predicted, however, that the institute will disappear and that 
it will be replaced by the summer normal schools, by official 
county and district teachers' meetings, and by voluntary teach- 
ers' associations.^"^ 

The summer normal schools usually continue in session from 
three to twelve weeks; the usual session is six weeks. They 
are conducted on the plan of schools in which lessons are pre- 
pared and discussed. Both academic and professional equip- 
ment is secured and preparation is made for higher certificates. 
Summer sessions in State normals are held in seventeen 
States.-^"^ Summer schools in colleges and universities offer 
courses in the traditional academic studies and also in those 



5" Cf. HoUlster, ibid., p. 179. 

"8 Cf. Dutton and Snedden, op. cit., p. 279. 

"9 Cf. Ruediger, ibid., p. 17. 

»oo Cf. Hollister, op. cit., p. 179. 

'" Cf. Ruediger, op. cit., p. 32. Johnston, C. H., "The Relation of the 
First Class Normal Schools to Departments and Schools of Education in 
Universities," The School Review Monograph, No. 11. Chicago, 1912, p. 37. 

"« Cf. Ruediger, W. C, op. cit., p. 49. 



100 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

subjects that have recently come into vogue, as agriculture, 
nature study, manual and industrial training, and domestic 
science and art. 

Correspondence study furnishes an opportunity to teachers 
in service to take courses in any grade of work from that of 
the high school to graduate work. Work is planned to enable 
teachers to pass examination for certificates and to give instruc- 
tion in nature study and elementary agriculture. Correspon- 
dence study is a recently founded educational agency. In 1904 
the Chicago University was the only higher institution which 
furnished it.^°^ In 1910 not less than ten State universities, 
two colleges, and five normal schools offered correspondence 
courses.^°* 

General teachers' meetings whose functions are primarily ad- 
ministrative, legislative, and inspirational serve an obvious edu 
cational purpose. They furnish an opportunity to decide upon 
a uniform educational policy for the community, and they give 
new educational points of view and inspiration to the teach- 
gj.g 305 Teachers' associations are differentiated from teachers' 
meetings by the element of voluntary attendance and the legal 
equality of all. The associations are of various constituencies, 
county, sectional, state, and national, all partaking of the 
same nature, but with distinctive features depending upon the 
character of the membership. The benefit derived from these 
associations is primarily inspirational in the renewal of pro- 
fessional interest which comes from the mutual exchange among 
teachers of views and sympathies.^^^ "Both state and national 
teachers' associations have merely an occasional purpose." '""^ 

The reading circles for teachers have been developed since 
1883 when the first circle was organized by the Ohio State 
Teachers' Association. At present, thirty-seven States have 
reading circles; two of these, Florida and Pennsylvania, hare 
county reading circles. The other thirty-five have State reading 
circles whose membership varies from forty in South Carolina 



803 Cf. Dexter, E. G., op. cit., p. 547. 
»o< Cf. Ruediger, W. C, op. cit., p. 58. 
»' Cf. Ruediger, W. C, ibid., pp. 65, 66. 
«o« Cf. Ruediger, W. C, ibid., pp. 86-91. 

'" Suzzallo, H., "The Reorganization of the Teaching "Profession, Na- 
lional Educational Association Proceedings, 1913, p. 370. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 101 

to all the teachers in Kansas.^"^ Usually, two or more lines of 
work are assumed, of which pedagogy or education holds the 
first place and literature is next in importance.^"' 

Courses of lectures on literary, historical, scientific, and semi- 
professional subjects, extension classes and intra-mural classes 
in the evening or on Saturday are ofl'ered by universities, 
colleges, and some normal schools in cities large enough to 
furnish an adequate number of students, enabling teachers to 
earn degrees while in service. Extra-mural classes are con- 
ducted by members of the faculty of the college or of the uni- 
versity, who meet a group of twenty students or more removed 
from the seat of the school and organized into a class.'^° 

The custom of granting the sabbatical year for the purpose 
of study and travel is extending to the high school and ele- 
mentary schools in a few cities in the East. The conditions 
are usually a year's leave of absence with one-third or one-half 
pay after a certain number of years of service, usually varying 
from seven to ten. The teacher is required to map out a course 
of study in some recognized institution of learning and have 
it approved. In case of travel, her itinerary must be approved 
in the same way.^^^ 

In connection with the agencies for the improvement of 
teachers while in service, the American Federation of Teachers 
should be considered. This organization was founded in 
Chicago, April 15, 1916. It was the result of a joint committee 
of three federations of teachers which had been working for 
two years to establish such a federation. On May 9, 1916, it 
was affiliated with the national federation of labor.^^- The ob- 
jects are: (1) to promote among teachers mutual assistance 
and cooperation; (2) to secure rights and benefits to which 
they are entitled; (.3) to raise the standard of the profession 
by securing conditions essential to professional service; (4) to 
promote the democratization of the schools for the ultimate 



»o» Cf. Ruediger, ibid., p. 93. 

'03 Cf . Button and Snedden, op. cit., p. 288. 

'^o Cf. Judd, C. H., "The Normal School Extension Course in Education," 
National Educational Association Proceedings, 1915, p. 772. 

"1 Cf. Ruediger, op. cit., p. 113. United States Bulletin, No. 13, 1913, pp. 
23-25. Belcher, K. F., "The Sabbatical Year for the Public School," Educa- 
tional Review, Vol. XLV, pp. 478-79. 

'1* Cf. Constitution of the American Federation of Teachers. Chicago, 1916, p. 1. 



102 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

industrial, social, and political good of the community.^^^ 
These purposes center around the question of salary, tenure, 
and security of office, the professional standards of teachers, 
and the democratization of the schools. 'Tensions, tenure, 
and pay are vital problems, but they cannot and should not be 
made the prime basis of teachers' associations. To do so is to 
focus our professional vigor on personal return rather than on 
impersonal service.'"^* It must be admitted that the basis of 
organization of the Teachers' Federation is essentially economic. 
The ground of justification of this movement on the part of the 
teachers is the necessity of organized strength to face the 
tyrany of school board management. The stated purpose of the 
teachers' union of New York City is to secure permanent salary 
schedules and tenure of office by affiliation with the American 
Federation of Labor : "The movement to unionize the teachers 
of New York City through an affiliation of the Teachers' League 
with the American Federation of Labor is indicative of a situ- 
ation in public education that must be recognized, more agree- 
able though it might be to gloss it over or to neglect it en- 
tirely." ^^^ Doctor Dewey justifies its affiliation with the labor 
unions on the basis that they are also servants of the public and 
possibly the influence of the affiliated teachers, with their high 
intelligence, will leaven the whole mass and bring the entire 
body of federated laborers to look at their labor not from the 
standpoint of their personal interests, but from that of service 
to the general public.^" By what influence or means the per- 
sonal interest of the teachers in the federation develops into 
public spiritedness Doctor Dewey does not state. For egoism 
to give place to altruism it is necessary that the will be habitu- 
ally exercised on behalf of others. As far as the purposes are 
defined, the federation of teachers is for self-protection. 

The effect of partisanship arising from the teachers affiliating 
with the labor union will not improve their professional spirit. 
On the contrary, affilitaion with one specific occupational 



«!' Cf. iUd., p. 3. 

s" Suzzallo, H., "The Reorganization of the Teaching Profession," iVa- 
tional Educational Association Proceedinqs, 1913, p. 366. 

»" Bagley, W. C, School and Home Education, Vol. XXXV, p. 245. 

"* Cf. Dewey, J., "Professional Organization of Teachers," The American 
Teacher, Vol. VII, p. 101. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness lOIJ 

group will ipso facto generate a partisan attitude in the teach- 
ers, the very spirit which must be overcome in the youth of the 
country. True citizenship means rising above all class and 
racial animosities. So long as teachers ally themselves with any 
class there is danger that they may acquire militant tenden- 
cies and lose the spirit of charity which is the essence of the 
apostolate of the teacher. 

The agencies at hand for the improvement of teachers while 
in service are concerned exclusively with the improvement 
of their academic and professional equipment. To secure this 
advancement, a direct economic stimulus is recommended and 
is increasingly adopted. "A salary schedule based only in part 
on years of service, and with additional rewards lor growth 
and efficiency after the common maximum has been reached, 
offers one of the best means for providing the proper stimulus 
for further professional growth."^^^ The desire for personal 
improvement is in direct proportion to the stimulus it receives. 
The law of growth applies equally in the moral and in the in- 
tellectual spheres. If the impulse is given to improve in aca- 
demic and professional lines only, the importance of moral 
vitality may be easily crowded to the periphery of conscious- 
ness. The constant enrichment of the personal worth of the 
teacher comes only by daily strivings to realize her ideals of 
justice, charity, and self-sacrifice. The agencies for improve- 
ment furnished to the State teacher while in service neither 
offer methods for advancement in these virtues nor contain any 
suggestion of the need of their cultivation. That the greatest 
work of the school should receive a proportionate attention, both 
in the preparation of the teacher and in her improvement while 
in service, is a natural inference. Educators state with in 
creasing clearness and force that teaching is more of a spirit- 
ual activity than a mental process, and that the formation of 
a worthy character is the primal aim of education. The ex- 
perts of educational theory have declared that the teacher 
should have the spirit of consecration to her work and willing- 
ness for disinterested service. Yet the basis of preparation and 
of the test of fitness is essentially intellectual. The State has; 



»" Cubberley, E. P., Public School Adminittralion. Boston, 191G, p. 267. 



104 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

no means whereby it can develop the spirit of sacrifice and 
service; it has no resources to call to its aid for the practical 
cultivation of the ideals of virtue. What lies beyond its power 
to furnish in the training of its teachers, it overlooks and 
ignores in its requirements of them. To those to whom 
it commits its nurseries of citizenship it gives a stim- 
ulus to improve academically and professionally; but to hold 
in high esteem the moral equipment of the teacher, to feel pro- 
foundly the vital importance of the self-cultivation of character, 
to advance from virtue to virtue, in a word to cultivate the 
moral interests of life, the State gives its teachers no aid or in- 
ducement. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PREPAItATION OF THE RELIGIOUS TEACHER TO TRAIN IN 
WILLINGNESS FOR DISINTERESTED SERVICE 

Chapter V showed the means at hand in the State school 
system to prepare the teacher for eflSciency in cultivating the 
quality of disinterestedness in her pupils. The present chapter 
purposes to inquire into the means possessed by the Catholic 
system to equip the intending teacher for the same high re- 
sponsibility. A study of the same three vital factors of the 
process which were considered in the preceding chapter will 
be made. These factors are: the principle of selection; the 
training in disinterestedness received by the intending teacher ; 
and the means of heightening this quality of the teacher while 
in service. 

1. The Principle of Selection 

The teachers of the Catholic schools are, for the most part, 
members of religious orders or congregations.^^® The develop- 
ment of the Catholic school system has been marked by two 
tendencies. The first was the replacement of male teachers by 
women. The second was the replacement of lay teachers, men 
and women, by religious. Thirty-five years ago, especially in 
the Middle West, lay teachers were commonly engaged in the 
parish schools. At present, they are employed only in excep- 
tional cases and then usually in the capacity of assistants to the 
religious teachers. ^^^ The religious teachers have taken the 



'^* Religious orders and congregations agree in the following points: (1) 
They are associations of persons of the same sex who live under a common 
rule; (2) The members have bound themselves by the three vows of poverty, 
chastity, and obedience to strive for Christian perfection according to the 
Gospel; (3) Their association has been sanctioned by papal, or at least by 
episcopal approbation. They differ in this, that the members of a religious 
order are bound for life by solemn vows carrying characteristic obligations; 
whereas, the members of a religious congregation are bound by simple vows, 
which at first may be temporary only, for one year, or for three years, or 
more, but M'hich ultimately must become permanent, extending to the end of 
life. Cf. Heimbucher, M. J., Die Orden vnd Kongregationen der Katholitchtn 
Kirche. Paderborn, 1907, Vol. I, pp. 1 ff., 23 ff. ' 

Throughout the chapter, the study will be based upon the religious teach- 
ing congregations of women exclusively, all of whom live under simple vowj. 
Therefore, we shall use the term congregation only. 

'1' Cf. Burns, J. A., "The Training of the Teacher," The American Catholic 
Quarterly Revietc, Vol. XXVIII, p. 672. 

105 



106 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

vows of voluntary poverty, perpetual chastity, and obedience 
to a superior, and practice the three virtues which are the 
objects of the vows. 

The religious State, called the state of perfection,^^'' "is a 
stable form of life approved by the Church, in which the faithful 
by the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and by 
a certain rule tend to the perfection of charity."^^^ Those who 
have bound themselves by the vows are called religious. 

In the economy of the Church, the religious life is a state of 
life set apart for those who have a special function to fulfill. 
Not that there are two standards of morality, one for the 
religious and one for secular Christians, as is held by some who, 
not knowing the Church, lack all insight into her economy. 
According to the Christian philosophy of life, every one has i\ 
distinct vocation and every one is called to perfection. The 
religious differ from other Christians only in this, they are 
called by God to serve Him in a particular way, either to live 
a life of contemplative prayer, or a mode of life uniting both 
the contemplative and the active service, helping others to sanc- 
tification. They manifest their appreciation of this precious 
privilege by practicing the renunciation required by the Evan- 
gelical Counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience which Our 
Lord recommended as the most perfect means to attain per- 
fection. 

Neither the vows nor the virtues which are the object of the 
vows are the end of religious life. They are but the means, the 
instruments to attain the end, which is the perfection of 
charity.^^^ Saint Thomas sets forth the contents of the vows 
and the reasons for the special facilities which they offer to 
attain perfection: ''The things to be first given up are those 
least closely united to ourselves. Therefore, the renunciation 



120 "The state of perfection is suggested by the words of Jesus Christ to 
the young man: 'If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to 
the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow Me.' 
Matthew, XIX, 21." Proctor, J., O.P., The Religious State. London, 1902, 

P- 1- 

"^ "Es< stabilis vitae conditio ah Ecclesia approbata, in qua fideles per tria 

vota paupertatis, continentiae, et obedientiae et certam regulam tendzmt ad per- 

fectionen charitatis." Priimmer, D. M., O.P., Manuele Juris Ecclesiastici . 

Freiburg, 1907, Vol. II, p. 1. 

'" Cf. Summa, Ila, Il^e, Q CLXXXVI. A. 7. Ad unum. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 107 

of material possessions, which are extrinsic to our nature, must 
be our first step on the road to perfection. The next objects 
to be sacrificed will be those which are united to our nature 
by a certain communion and necessary affinity. . . . Now, 
among all relationships the conjugal tie does, more than any 
other, engross men's hearts. . . . Hence, they who are aim- 
ing at perfection must above all things avoid the bond of mar- 
riage which in a pre-eminent degree entangles men in earthly 
concerns. . . . Therefore, the second means whereby a 
man may be more free to devote himself to God, and to cleave 
more perfectly to Him, is by the observance of perpetual 
chastity. But continence possesses the further advantage of 
affording a peculiar facility to the acquirement of perfection. 
For the soul is hindered in its free access to God not only by 
the love of exterior things, but much more by force of interior 
passions.'"'^^ 

'*It is not only necessary for the perfection of charity that a 
man should sacrifice his exterior possessions; he must also, in 
a certain sense, relinquish himself. . . . This practice of 
salutary self-abnegation and charitable self-hatred* is, in part, 
necessary for all men in order to gain salvation and is partly 
a point of perfection. . . . It is in the nature of divine love 
existing in an individual soul. It is essential to salvation that a 
man should love God to such a degree as to make Him his end. 
and to do nothing which he believes to be opposed to the Divine 
Love. Consequently, self-hatred and self-denial are necessary 
for salvation. . . . But in order to attain perfection, we 
must further, for the love of God, sacrifice what we might law- 
fully use, in order thus to be more free to devote ourselves to 
Him. It follows, therefore, that self-hatred and self-denial 
pertain to perfection. . . . Now, the more dearly a thing 
is loved according to nature, the more perfect it is to despise 
it for the sake of Christ. Nothing is dearer to any man than the 
freedom of his will. . . . Just, therefore, as a person re 
linquishes his wealth and leaves those to whom he is bound by 
natural ties, denies these things and persons; so he, who re 



"» Saint Thomas, The Religious Life, Translated by Proctor, J., O.P. 
London. 1902, pp. 26-28. 

* Used in the sense of self-mortification. 



108 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

nounces his own will, which makes him master, does truly deny 
himself. . • . [Eeligious] make a complete sacrifice of 
their own will for the love of God, submitting themselves to 
another by the vow of obedience, of which virtue Christ has 
given us a sublime example."^^* 

The life of detachment and renunciation required by the ob- 
servance of the Counsels will operate by its very nature as a 
process of spiritual selection to sift out those who have the 
sacrificial spirit and who are willing to embrace the sacrificial 
life from those who do not wish, at least openly, to embrace 
and profess a life of service. Those who accept this require- 
ment, accept deliberately, and are conscious that they are enter- 
ing upon the high road of unselfish service which demands self- 
sacrifice. 

The vow of poverty by which the religious relinquishes her 
claim to material possessions excludes the economic motive, 
hence there need be no thought of financial rewards. The only 
sure deliverance from the thralldom of wealth is a complete 
detachment from material things. The Philosophers of the 
Ideal Republic possessed neither gold nor silver in order that, 
free from the cares of wealth, they might devote themselves 
unreservedly to the affairs of State. Plato based the Republic 
upon the psychology of the human mind. Our Lord placed 
His seal of approval upon the same principle in His answer to 
the rich young ruler. "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what 
thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures 
in heaven : and come follow me."^^^ That voluntary poverty is a 
severe test of the sacrificial spirit is proved by the fact that 
the young man who had kept the commandments from his 
youth was not equal to the test, but "went away sad : for he had 
great possessions."^^^ His love of wealth was the barrier to high 
service in Christ's kingdom on earth. Bound by his "greal 
possessions" he lost the highest good of life, an intimate service 
of God, and was committed to the lesser good of life. 

The vow of obedience by which the religious renounces her 
own will and promises to obey a superior excludes the self- 



'" Ibid., pp. 41-47. 
526 Matthew, XIX, 21. 

^^^Ibid., 22. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingjiess lO'f 

seeking motive. Self-denial must enter into every Christian life. 
To every one Our Lord gave the law of self-denial: "And 
calling the multitude together with His disciples, He said to 
them: 'If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself, and 
take up his cross, and follow Me'." ^" But the religious must 
go to the uttermost length of self-surrender and renounce not 
only her possessions, but also her will, the most intimately 
active element of personality. She renounces her freedom only 
to rise to the higher level of freedom of finding God's will and 
doing it in all her actions because it is His Will. To realize 
this larger freedom by the surrender of self-will is the logical 
outcome of the fundamental law of self-sacrifice as given by 
Our Lord in the paradox. "He that shall lose his life for My 
sake, shall find it."^-^ 

Eenunciation is fundamentally related to self-discipline; and 
notwithstanding the widely current misconception of its value, 
it is intimately linked with self-conquest in the process of char- 
acter-building. There are basic laws governing the balance of 
human character just as inexorable as the mechanical laws 
controlling the physical universe. One of these is the ascetic 
principle which may be stated in many ways, but which con- 
sists essentially in this: to live rationally one must restrain 
the natural impulses. If we admit that character is distinctly 
a fruit of education, then by implication we admit the high 
value of the capacity of doing without and the ability of en- 
during hardships, two vital elements of character and inti- 
mately related. If these two qualities are to persist in char- 
acter, they must be rooted in daily life by the practice of re- 
nunciation. 

Eenunciation and asceticism are kindred terms. Asceticism 
should not be regarded as an attempt to eradicate natural 
forces, but as practice in the art of self-discipline. "Without 
a recognition, on principle, of the value of asceticism and 
without ils educational assistance, people will not acquire and 
retain a certain and ripened power for the controlling of 
natural instincts.^-^ The word asceticism is derived from 



"' Mark, VIII, 34. 
"8 Matthew, XVI, £5. 

"9 Foerster, F. W., Marriage and the Sex Problem, op. cit., pp. XIV, XV 
(The italics are the author's.) 



110 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

'aoKTjots, which means exercise, and herein lies its essential 
meaning. In ancient Greece it meant the discipline practiced 
by athletes in training for their games. The word was taken 
over by Stoic philosophy to signify that the disciple required 
not merely to overcome the desires and passions, but to eradi- 
cate them."^^° In the Christian sense it has no such meaning. It 
is rather the method of attaining self-control by the man who 
recognizes the moral obligation of keeping nature under con- 
trol so that reason may rule his conduct. The athlete, the 
student, the saint, each must practice it in order to attain his 
goal. The importance of ascetic principle to the athlete is 
vital. Saint Paul uses an illustration taken from the Isthmian 
games to drive home to the Corinthians the need of self-denial : 
''And every one that strive th for the mastery, refraineth himself 
from all things."^^^ What is true of its value on the physical 
side of life, is true also in the mental and moral world. Its 
value in the intellectual life is attested by Professor Tyndall. 
He said of scientific inductive research : "It requires patient 
industry and an humble and conscientious acceptance of what 
nature reveals. ... A self-renunciation which has some- 
thing noble in it, and of which the world never hears, is often 
enacted in the private experience of the true votary of 
science."^^^ Huxley says: "The ethical progress depends not 
on imitating the cosmic process, but in combating it. . . . 
Much may be done to change the nature of man himself. The 
intelligence which has converted the brother of the wolf into 
the faithful guardian of the flock ought to be able to do some- 
thing towards curbing the instincts of savagery in civilized 
man."^^^ Saint Paul, that master of the spiritual life, said : "I 
chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, 
when I have preached to others, I myself should become a cast- 
away."^^* Saint Paul uses the term in the Christian sense of 
bringing under control the physical appetites and energies which 
must be subdued in order that the spiritual interests may have 
place in man's life. The unitary character of the human person, 



"0 Cf. Turner, W., History of Philosophy. Boston, 1903, p. 173. 

3" I. Corinthians, IX, 25. 

"2 Quoted in Ediication, Spencer, H. New York, 1900, p. 80. 

"2 Evolution and Ethics, op. cit., p. 85. 

'5* I. Corinthians, IX., 27. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 111 

with its two principles and their disproportionate strength, 
demands that if man is to live rationally the physical nature 
must be curbed. The Christian evaluation of asceticism is 
well stated by Doctor Foerster: ''Asceticism should he re- 
garded, not as a negation of nature nor as an attempt to extir- 
pate natural forces, hut as practice in the art of self-disci- 
pline.''^^^ It is a necessary means to acquire self-control, and 
thereby attain inner freedom in the ethical realm where the 
motive is purely rational. 

In the religious life, where the obligation is binding to tend 
to perfection, the ascetic principle is in high favor. The virtues 
which are the object of the vows, poverty, chastity, and obedi- 
ence, call for a sacrifice of self which compels the religious to 
continuous effort. But the motive here is higher than ethical ; 
it springs from the love of God Whom the soul has espoused 
in Jesus Christ. Behold the difference that is made in the 
moral life by the introduction of the religious element! In the 
words of Martineau, the whole spirit of the character of duty 
becomes transformed: ''With the opening of the heavens, a 
great redemption comes, and by presenting an infinite object 
of personal affection, converts the life of Duty into the life 
of Love, and reinforces the individual will by the 'Spirit that 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of 
God.' "'^® It arouses aspiration and effort to do far more than 
is required by the moral law, which leaves scope for the gener- 
ous nature. It is the great moving power urging the soul on 
to the perfection of charity by the most perfect means ; namely, 
the Evangelical Counsels of poverty,^" chastity,^^^ and 
obedience. 

Historically, the conditions of the state of perfection were 
given by Our Lord in the Counsels. From the same source is 
derived the value which the religious places upon renunciation 
and mortification, which were never elevated by the Church to 
ends, but used merely as means either of reparation for the 
abuse of God's gifts or of discipline to keep the heart from 



"s Foerster, F. W., op. cit., p. 128. (The italics are the author's.) 
"' Martineau, James, A Story of Religion, op. cit., p. 26. 
»" Matthew, XIX, 21. 
«»« Matthew. XIX. 12. 



112 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

created things for God. ''It is a blessed gift of the divine 
bounty that not only can we render satisfaction to God for our 
sins by penitential works of our own choosing, . . . but 
also that the painful visitations of providence, if we but pati- 
ently bear them, may by our union with Christ Jesus avail 
with God the Father to the same end."^^^ This decree of the 
Council of Trent is typical of the Church's teaching from her 
foundation. Self-restraint and self-denial are necessary, but 
"our object must be for every sacrifice to bring into the con- 
sciousness clear equivalents of a higher description, so that 
there is no crucifixion without a resurrection."^*" One's energy 
and zeal, made patient and tender by the love of God, flow out 
in channels of service to one's neighbor. 

The common life in which the strength of the religious insti- 
tute consists scarcely existed, at least as an openly acknowl- 
edged institution, until the freedom of the Church was granted 
by Constantine. From the beginning of the infant Church there 
had been a small follovring of the Apostles of those who prac- 
ticed monastic discipline. Saint Paul spoke of widows and 
virgins, whom he praised for their devotion to the things of 
the Lord.^" Saint Cyprian, in the third century, termed the 
virgins, brides of Christ.^*^ Keligious obedience in the strict 
sense began with the cenobitic life founded by Saint Pachomius 
at Tabennae, on the Nile, in the year 325,^*^ and the observance 
of the three Evangelical Counsels date from his time. At the 
end of the fourth century Saint Athanasius, Saint Basil, Saint 
Chrysostum, Saint Gregory Nazianzen, and Saint Gregory of 
Nyssa had encouraged and promoted monastic life in the East, 
Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, and Saint Augustine were no 
less zealous in promoting it in the West.^** Monasteries sprang 
up rapidly and vigorously, and became a providential mis- 
sionary agency, offering a system of social service. From the 
middle of the fifth century the cenobitic institutes occupied, 
one after another, every province of the Koman Empire. They 



330 Con. Trid. sess., XIV., cap., IX. 

3« Foerster, F. W., op. cit., p. 121. 

3^1 Romans, XVI, 1-15. 

3^« Cf. Allies, T. W., The Monastic Life. London, 1896, p. 89. 

3" Cf . Ibid., p. 87. 

3« Cf. ibid., p. 98. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 113 

were encamped on the frontiers, waiting and prepared to con- 
vert the barbarians.^*^ But, although there had been vast num- 
bers leading the cenobitic life, among them illustrious saints, 
until the days of Saint Benedict, there had been no Religious 
Orders. He imposed upon the monks of his convent the vow of 
stability or perpetual residence, an important innovation and 
one of the principal guarantees of the permanence and strength 
of community life.^*^ His Rule, which was written not to found 
an institute but to regulate the operation of one already in 
existence,^^^ enjoined some useful work upon each monk. It 
contained instructions regarding the teaching of youth, the 
copying of manuscripts, and the method of discharging of duties 
of various offices, e. g., ''those who were skilled in the practice 
of an art or trade could only exercise it by permission of the 
abbot, in all humility; and if any one prided himself on his 
talent or the profit which resulted from it to the house he was 
to have his occupation changed until he had humbled himself. 
Those who were charged with selling the product of the work 
of these select laborers could take nothing from the price to 
the detriment of the monastery, nor could they raise it avari- 
ciously; they were to sell at less cost than the secular work- 
men to give the greater glory to God."^** 

The intrinsic force of the monastic life, as well as its apti- 
tude for the time in which it appeared, is forcibly shown by its 
achievements as related in the following statement: "The 
monks carried the banner of culture and civilization to the 
distant regions of the earth. They were the apostles of Chris- 
tianity, not only in the West, but also in Asia and in the newly 
discovered regions of the globe. Their foundations opened the 
way for the cultivation of the soil, for the laying out of colonies^, 
villages, and towns. The monks cleared forests, drained 
swamps and planted them, controlled rivers, recovered fruitful 
land by the building of dams, gave an impetus to cattle-raising, 
to agriculture, and to industry, and trained in these pursuits 



3« Cf . Montalembert. The Monks nf the West. London, 1801-1879, Vol. II, 
D. 257—72. 
^^^ Ibid., pp. 57, 58. 

3" Cf. Allies, T. W., op. cit., p. 125. 

3^8 Rjile, Chaptei, LVII, quoted in Monls of the West., op. cit.. Vol. II, pp. 
46-47. 



114 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

the colonists, whom they habituated to a fixed dwelling place 
ijnd to regulated labor. They introduced the cultivation of 
fruits and vegetables, they built mills and forges, made streets 
and bridges, promoted trade and commerce. They prepared 
the way for the class of free hand-workers, and in so doing- 
favored the development of city government. They united the 
hand-workers in fraternal societies and guilds, and made a 
point of favoring their material advance through appropriate 
means. The cloisters practiced hospitality, care of the sick, 
and works of charity; wherever the opportunity was offered, 
they erected schools and colleges, hospitals, and inns, and took 
in travelers who had lost their way. Great have been their 
services to the arts and sciences. Without the cloisters, many 
cities and countries would be without those buildings and 
art treasures which today call forth the admiration of the 
cultured. The monks formed valuable libraries, and through 
their unceasing industry in the scriptoria in making copies, 
which they often illuminated with beautiful miniatures, 
they prei^erved the priceless literary monuments which today 
link us with the culture of the distant past. They were tl:;> 
historians of their time. They left many valuable sources 
of the Old High German tongue; they cultivated poetry and 
song, won for themselves a good name by their knowledge of 
lands, peoples and languages, mathematics, astronomy, and 
the science of diplomacy. They attempted natural philosophy 
and medicine. .But it was especially theology that through the 
Orders experienced beneficial attention and progress. Brother- 
hoods copied and distributed a kind of popular literature, and 
after the invention of printing applied themselves to the print- 
ing of books. The care of souls formed another branch of the 
comprehensive activity of the Orders. Attention was also given 
to prisoners, and especially to slaves, for whose redemption 
from captivity special Orders arose. From the Orders also came 
many martyrs, and many of the members have been beatified 
or canonized."^*^ 

The achievements of the monks are of the utmost relevance 
in estimating the socializing influence of the religious congrega- 



5^^ Heimbucher, M. J., Die Orden und Congregationen der Katholischeri 
Kircke, op. cit., pp. 65, 66. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 115 

tions. As missionaries the monks presented an inspiring spec- 
tacle of men who had given up selfish ambitions ; their sincerity 
and unselfishness made a deep impression upon the rude peoples 
about them. The victory of the Christian faith over the estab- 
lished religions of the world is attributed in no small measure 
to the effect of the purity of life and self-denial of the monks. 
Gibbon says: "Their serious and sequestered life, averse to the 
gay luxury of the age, inured them to the chastity, temperance, 
economy, and all the sober and domestic virtues. As the greater 
number were of some trade or profession, it was incumbent on 
them, by the strictest integrity and fairest dealing, to remove 
the suspicions which the profane are too apt to conceive against 
the appearance of sanctity. The contempt of the world exer- 
cised them in the habits of humility, meekness, and patience. 
The more they were persecuted, the more the}' adhered to each 
other. This mutual charity and unsuspecting confidence has 
been remarked by infidels, and was too often abused by perfidi- 
ous friends."^'^'^ 

Historians are unanimous in their recognition of the prac- 
tical good that the monastic system achieved in various lines 
throughout the Middle Ages. The monasteries were always 
schools of labor, in which the day was divided into work and 
prayer.^^^ They were schools of charity for the poor and for 
travelers and pilgrims passing by. The social conditions of the 
time were harsh and cruel even to the point of brutality. The 
religious endeavored to lay the foundation of the social order 
by giving the example of kindness, meekness, and charity. 
Lecky says : "Every monastery became a center of charity. By 
the monks, the nobles were overawed, the poor protected, the 
sick tended, travelers sheltered, prisoners ransomed, the re- 
motest spheres of suffering explored. During the darkest 
period of the Middle Ages monks founded a refuge for pilgrims 
amid the horrors of the Alpine snows. . . . When the 
hideous disease of leprosy extended its ravages over Europe, 
when the minds of men were filled with terror, not only by its 
loathsomeness and its contagion, but also by the notion that it 
was in a peculiar sense supernatural, new hospitals and 



'50 Gibbon. E., The Decline and Fall. London, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 318-19. 
351 Cf. Montalembert, op. cit.. Vol. II, p. 46. 



116 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

refuges overspread Europe and monks flocked in multitudes to 
serve in them.'"^^ Neither Gibbon nor Lecky was disposed to 
exaggerate the beneficent work of the monks. Their sense of 
justice compelled each of them to recognize the monasteries as 
great social institutions, exerting a socializing influence upon 
the people. These great humanizing centers remained inviolate 
and flourished throughout the wars and conquests of the Middle 
Ages, the monks leading men to virtue by their own sincerity 
and self-surrender. The testimony of history shows unquali- 
fiedly that renunciation was the great secret of their achieve- 
ment in behalf of social relationships; that renunciation, in- 
spired by the love of God and flowing out in love of neighbor, 
developed their capacity for self-sacrifice and self-devotion and 
their ability to "spend and be spent"^^'^ themselves in service. 
The quality of self-surrender which characterized the religious 
life of which Gibbon and Lecky wrote is just as essential for 
the religious life of the present day as it was in mediaeval 
times. This state of life should justify its existence now, as 
then, by the high quality of service which it renders. 

The primary aim of every religious congregation is the per- 
sonal sanctification of its members.^^* The secondary end of 
every teaching religious congregation is education, either ele- 
mentary, secondary, or collegiate, or all three phases of the 
work. '"The principal end or purpose must be clearly distin- 
guished from the secondary end proper to each institution."^^^ 
The secondary purpose gives the reason of the existence of the 
individual congregation and bears the relation to the primary 
purpose of means to end. If the end is attained, it is by the 
proper use of the means. Therefore, if a person enters a teach- 
ing community to accomplish her personal sanctification, she 
is under the hypothetical necessity of entering seriously upon 
the high responsibility of the teacher's task. The consciousness 
of having assumed the work as a life profession, out of appre- 
ciation of its possibilities, is a perennial influence, stimulating 
to a professional preparation which will help to give the critical 



362 Lecky, W. E., History of European Morals. New York, 1879, Vol. II, 
p. 84. 

3" II Corinthians, XII. 15. 

3" Cf. Normae, Rome, 1901, Art. XLII. 

«6 Cf . ibid. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 117 

insight to discriminate between educational methods that are 
merely traditional and those that are based upon scientifically 
tested data. The consciousness of her vocation to help to the 
uttermost that God's plan for His world may be realized is a 
perennial reminder and stimulus to endeavor to attain that 
power which comes from mastery of her work based on knowl- 
edge. The function of education "is not merely to keep us from 
falling, nor is it to help us to become proper; it is to teach u« 
to love God with all our hearts and strength and mind, and our 
neighbors as ourselves. ... In the work of education you 
enter on a grand enterprise, a search for the Holy Grail, which 
will bring you to strange lands and perilous seas."^^^ Arch- 
bishop Spalding says : "The teacher is no longer a pedagogue, 
but a cooperator with God for the regeneration of the world."^*^ 
^'Quilibet tenetur servare spectantia ad statiim swum'' is a 
fundamental principle. When anyone enters upon a state of 
life he assumes the duties that belong to it. 

II. The Teacher Training 

In this study we cannot keep too persistently in mind the 
thought that the specific purpose of our inquiry is to discover 
which type of school, the State school or the Catholic school, 
is best equipped, by virtue of the training of its teachers, to 
promote disinterestedness. This word is not used as a blanket 
term, but with the definite content of personal responsibility to 
the community and such a willingness to serve its interests as 
will result in action. It is equivalent to the quality cultivated 
by the study of Community Civics, "whose significance does not 
lie in its geographical implication, but in its implication of 
community relations, of a community of interests. ... It 
is a question of a point of view, and community civics applies 
this point of view to the study of the national community as 
well as to the study of the local community."^^^ It is impor- 
tant that this purpose be kept permanently in consciousness 
during the discussion. The study, viewed from this aspect. 



"6 Wallace, William, op. cit., pp. 209, 210. Quoted V>y Smith, H. !>., in 
Education as the Training of Personality. Manchester, 1913, p. 32. 

357 "Development of Educational Ideals," Congress of Arts and Sciences, 
Vol. VIII, op. cit., p. 31. 

»* 7vytc Education Circular, No. 1, Bureau of Education. 



118 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

resolves itself into an examination of the training received by 
tlie religious teacher as a postulant and novice, to see how far 
she unconsciously and almost necessarily becomes permeated 
with the spirit of community interest and community responsi- 
bility. The novitiate, inasmuch as it ti-ains the religious 
teacher, parallels the normal school in its preparation of the 
State teacher. 

The candidate for a religious congregation enters preliminary 
training for a term varying from six months to a year, accord- 
ing to the constitutions of that congregation. The time may be 
extended not more than three months longer than the consti- 
tutions prescribe.^^® During this preliminary term of postu- 
lantship the candidate, known as a postulant, lives according 
to the regime of religious life which puts her in touch with the 
main features of community life, enabling her to get an insight 
into the spirit and daily life of the convent conjointly with her 
training, so that if she enters religious life it may be with the 
knowledge derived from observation of the daily order of that 
life and after due reflection. It affords the community an 
equal opportunity to judge the fitness of the candidate for the 
common life. "Not only certainty of a candidate's lack of voca- 
tion, but even an acute doubt about it, should cause his dis- 
missal. . . . Close observation persuades one that the ex- 
clusion of unfit subjects is the prime duty of novice masters 
rather than the admission of worthy ones. , . . The door 
of the house of novices should swing outward more easily than 
inward."^^" 

Saint Benedict directed that the greatest care be exercised 
to acquaint the candidate with the nature and obligations of 
the life, so that no vow would be taken lightly nor unfit candi- 
dates be received into the Order. According to his Kule, after 
a few days' probation the candidate is admitted into the noviti- 
ate and entrusted to the care of the novice master, who studies 
the candidate's character, and especially the marks of his 
vocation, and tells him of the difficulties which one may meet in 



36» Cf. Normae, op. cit.. Art. LXV. 

sso Elliott, Walter, The Spirihial Life. New York, 1914, p. 33. "Pray 
give particular attention to what I am about to add; be very severe, I would 
almost say fastidious, in choosing persons to be received into the society." 
(Saint Francis Xavier quoted by Father Elliott, ibid., p. 34.) 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 119 

religion. If, after two mouths, it appears that he would remain 
steadfast, the entire Eule is read to him, and the reading con- 
cludes with the words: "Behold the law under which thou 
wouldst fight ; if thou canst observe it, enter ; if thou canst not, 
depart in freedom." In six months it is read again, and after 
an interval of four mouths more, a third reading is completed. 
At the expiration of the year, if the novice perseveres, he takes 
the vow of obedience, which includes the vow of poverty and 
chastity.^*'^ This Kule is observed substantially by Benedictine 
Communities of Women. Every community makes serious 
endeavors to give the postulant a thorough understanding 
of the religious life before she is formally admitted to the 
congregation. 

At the expiration of this preliminary term the postulant is 
received to the religious habit. The religious training then 
begins in its fullness. Saint Benedict calls the novitiate the 
School of the Lord's Service.^®^ The general entrance require- 
ments are tixed by the Sacred Congregation of Regulars.^^^ 
Chiefly they are these : 

1. A true vocation, proceeding from a supernatural end. In- 
trinsically, the vocation is the earnest desire of perfection 
attained by ways of the Counsels which the novice begins to 
observe in the novitiate. Therefore, although she retains own- 
ership of her possessions during the novitiate, she is required 
to practice renunciation of the use of them. She practices 
perfect obedience to a superior conformably to the rule and 
constitutions of the congregation. 

2. Sound bodily health. The religious should be able phys- 
ically to conform to the mode of living in community life and 
to be of active service. 

3. Good morals and good reputation. The candidate should 
be already formed to the practice of ordinary virtues. The 
Counsels without the basis of the Commandments are useless. 
Their faithful observance is impossible without the will to obey 
and to love God. The decree Ecclesia Christi, 1909, by the 



'8^ Cf. Rule of Saint Benediccl, translated by Verheyen, B., Atchison, Kan- 
sas, 1912, pp. 127-28. 

,82 Qj wrpjjg Prologue," Rule, op. cit., p. 7. 
»' Cf. Normae. op. cit.. Arts. LVI, LVII. 



120 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

declaration of 1910, invalidates, without the dispensation of the 
Holy See, the admission to a religious congregation of any 
person who for grave reason has been expelled from college.^''* 

4. Freedom from all binding obligations, whether of vow or 
of those derived from the natural law. Accordingly, candidates 
whose parents are really in need may not embrace the religious 
life.^"" 

5. The minimum and maximum ages of fifteen and thirty 
years, respectively, except by dispensation of the Holy See.^^" 
The psychologist recognizes the wisdom of this ruling. The 
character of the adolescent under fifteen is still emotionally 
and volitionally unstable and wanting in the basis of experience 
to make a decision of lifelong consequences. On the other hand, 
the adult over thirty has lost much of the mental plasticity 
essential to the adjustment of the self to the reactions of group 
life. The concepts and habits formed in the novitiate should 
have a permanence usually not acquired after the age of thirty. 

6. In addition to the qualifications required by the Sacred 
Congregation of Kegulars, most of the congregations add the 
requirement of ability to fulfill some one of the offices pertain- 
ing to the work of the community. 

No minimum scholastic requirements have been fixed. The 
congregations furnish academic training to the candidate, both 
as a postulant and novice, and some continue to give training 
one or two years after the religious has made her profession, 
depending upon conditions. As yet there is no single set of 
standards of minimum requirements for teachers. As indices 
of the advancement of working standards, it is the policy of 
certain dioceses^^^ to require as minimum scholastic qualifica- 
tions a four-year high school course or its equivalent. In line 
with the trend of this policy, some congregations are tending 
toward the adoption of the same requirements for their teachers. 

One complete and continuous year of novitiate is required as 
preparation for valid profession.^^^ Some congregations, how- 



's* Cf. Lanslots, D. I., Handbook of Canon Law. New York, 1911, pp. 
62-53. 
365 Cf. Normae, Arts. LVI, LVII. 

SI56 Cf. Council of Trent, Sess. XXV., C. 5. Normae, Art. LXI. 
3«7 The diocese of Cleveland, Ohio. 
358 Council of Trent, Sess. XXV, C. 5. Normae, Art. LXXII. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 121 

ever, have a two-year novitiate. Where such obtains, the first 
year is the canonical year, devoted entirely to manual work, 
spiritual instruction, and prayer; the second year is given to 
spiritual instruction and study. In the one-year novitiate the 
day is divided into manual work, study, spiritual instruction, 
and prayer. While we have reasonably adequate knowledge of 
conditions, there is little opportunity of discriminating investi- 
gation regarding the facts. The data lack a certain scientific 
accuracy, but they represent the practical working conditions 
of this vitally important teacher-training function of the 
novitiate. 

At the end of the novitiate training, if the novice is convinced 
that her vocation is the religious life, that she has the desire 
and capacity for sacrifice that will enable her to conform to its 
requirements, and fitness for the work of the community to 
which she has come; and if the congregation has reasonable 
assurance that she has the sacrificial spirit and the physical 
and mental competence necessary for the work of a religious, 
she makes her profession. If, on the other hand, the community 
finds her wanting in such dispositions or in requisite ability, it 
is its important duty to decline to admit her to profession. 
Regarding the obligation of religious to be vigilant in sifting 
new members on the basis of earnestness and the sacrificial 
spirit, the Dominican Chapter of Ghent, A. D. 1871, issued the 
following admonition: "Considering the special need there is 
in our day of prudent severity in the admission of subjects to 
religion, we exhort all those who have a right to vote for the 
profession of novices to admit to profession none but those who 
are worthy and approved. They should have but one thing only 
before their eyes in giving their votes, namely, whether the 
novice in question has shown such clear and manifest signs of 
a true and Divine vocation and of fidelity in walking worthy 
of it, that she may be safely admitted to profession ; if not, she 
ought either to be sent back to the world or at least her profes- 
sion should be deferred, as shall seem best in the Lord."^^^ 

The novitiate training contributes to both the mental and 
the moral equipment of the teacher. The academic curriculum 



»»" Quoted in the CcnstHulions of the Sisters of Saitit Dominic. Chicago, 
1889, p. 137. 



122 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

parallels closely the curriculum of the State normal school, 
except in regard to the subject of religion. In the novitiate 
religious instruction finds place in the daily schedule, giving 
scope for the development of the entire personality of the 
student and the expression of the future personality of the 
teacher. There is avoided, therefore, the threefold educational 
fallacy which follows from the exclusion of religion of (1) 
dividing the historical content of culture into parts and assum- 
ing that these parts can be communicated independently of each 
other; (2) dividing the pupil into parts and assuming that these 
parts can be developed independently of each other; (3) divid- 
ing the teacher into parts and assuming that certain elements 
of her culture can be kept out of class. The novitiate leaves 
the teacher free to give utterance to her deepest and most 
significant convictions. The instructors in the academic sub- 
jects pursued by the novices are selected from the congregation 
for their competence in character forming, as well as for ability 
to give academic and professional training. Experienced 
teachers are appointed to the supremely important work of 
preparing the young religious in both the cultural and profes- 
sional courses for teaching. 

The training of the novices is entrusted to the novice mistress, 
usually an experienced religious distinct from the local supe- 
rior. To direct the altruism and idealism of these candidates 
into channels of high service is her opportunity and her obliga- 
tion. This oflflce is regarded as incomparably responsible, and 
certain qualifications requisite in the incumbent are specified 
in the constitutions of every congregation. The personality of 
any teacher is an incalculably important factor in the char- 
acter forming of students. The novitiate is a time for the 
novices to lay the basis for living increasingly in the true reali- 
ties of life ; to form themselves to sacrifice self in the service of 
God and of their neighbor; a fortiori the personality of the 
novice mistress is of the utmost importance as an example to 
the novices. "The teacher's masterpiece of art should be her 
own self.""° The novice mistress exercises a kind of apostolate 
among the novices. She forms them upon the lines of the 



«™ Elliott, W., op. cit., p. S26. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 12.'> 

interior life. There are selfish habits to be broken and sacri- 
ficial habits to be formed, views to be enlarged, convictions to 
be deepened, and, above and beyond all, the foundations of 
sincerity and integrity are to be made deep and secure as the 
basis of the virtues of the religious life. The character of the 
religious teacher should include two sets of virtues: (1) the 
human or natural virtues of sincerity, justice, and a certain 
delicacy or savoir-vlvre, but all commanded and sustained by a 
force of character whose backbone is strength of will; (2) the 
Christian virtues of poverty, mortification, and humility,"^ 
which lie beyond the natural virtues, inasmuch as reason and 
will, unassisted by divine grace, are unable to acquire them. 
Eeason needs the supernatural light of faith to open the mind 
to the virtues which Christ taught, and the will needs the lever 
of divine love to lift itself to the practice of them, since they 
are radically opposed to man's natural impulses. The cultiva- 
tion of these virtues lessens proportionately the strength of the 
threefold temptations, the concupiscence of the eyes and of the 
flesh, and the pride of life,^"- which constitute the tliree ob- 
stacles to the personal union of the soul with God. The removal 
of these barriers tends to starve the self-seeking impulse. 
Starve an impulse, and it dies is a psychological principle. As 
one is released from the captivity of self, one gains true free- 
dom which enlarges the heart for sympathy and endows 
the will with power for service. This is the essence of 
disinterestedness. 

From the day that the novice enters the novitiate she begins 
to practice the virtue of poverty, whicli ctmsists in the renun- 
ciation of the use of her possessions and her affection for them. 
At the expiration of the novitiate term she takes the vow of 
poverty, which leads to the virtue that she has been learniuji 
to practice in its two vital elements. These are the sacrifice 
accomplished by the renunciation of her possessions and tho 
motive of the sacrifice which is the love of God. 

Approaching it from the educational viewpoint, it is our 
purpose to examine the obligation that voluntary poverty lays 
upon the religious that we may make such an analysis of its 



»'i Cf. Guibert, J., Les QualiKs de L'Educatevr. Fiiris, 1003, pp. 30-89. 
>" Cf. John, I Epistle, II, 16. 



124 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

elements as will show an evaluation of its contribution to 
teacher-training in the novitiate. The question is: In what 
way, and to what degree, does it prepare the teacher to commu- 
nicate the community spirit to pupils? 

"Disinterestedness, according to Our Lord, is ambition disin- 
fected of self-interest."^" Every page of the Gospels substan- 
tiates that statement. To attain the initiative, buoyancy, and 
freedom of spirit that belong to the wholesome nature without 
the natural selfishness which is at the root of man's nature is 
the ideal sought. By what means can it be accomplished? 
Only by the substitution of a stronger motive than that of deep 
seated selfishness. That the training in voluntary poverty^^* 
and the common life, which rests fundamentally upon the 
observance of poverty, furnishes such a substitute is the thesis 
to be proved. 

Since the virtue of poverty conditions the existence of the 
common life, the vow and virtue of poverty have both a personal 
and a social value. As between the personal end of education 
and the social end there is no inherent contradiction, but rather 
a supplementary relationship,^^^ so the personal and social 
values of the poverty of a religious reinforce each other. The 
personal value lies in its power to develop the character of the 
teacher; the social value lies in its potency to develop com- 
munity interest and the spirit of neighborly service. 

The poverty of the religious is the foundation of religious 
perfection. It strikes at the root of character and demands 
sincerity of heart. External renunciation is a mockery unless 
there be interior detachment. Saint Teresa told her Sisters 
that if, after having vowed themselves to practice poverty, 
they were not poor in spirit, they were like miserly ''rich people 
asking for alms."^^*^ 

Voluntary poverty has both a negative and a positive func- 
tion in forming character. Negatively, it removes one of the 
obstacles that lie in the path of perfection. In the renuncia- 



378 Elliott, W., op. cit., p. 238. 

3'^'' By voluntary poveity is meant the free renunciation of all possessions 
and the right of ownership. 

'■'^ Cf. Baldwin, J. M., The Individual and Society. Boston. 1911, Chapter I. 

»'' Cf. Saint Teresa, The Way of Perfection, translated by Dalton. London, 
1857. p. 29. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 125 

tion of material things the religious makes a vigorous attack 
upon the germ of cupidity, which is the source of all spiritual 
ills. "The desire of money is the root of all evils.""^ The 
existence of evil is a fact of experience, and the problem of how 
best to deal with it is vital and must be faced. The principle 
of substitution is invoked and the virtue of voluntary poverty 
becomes the instrument to effect the change by which the 
activity of desire is directed from material objects to spiritual 
satisfactions. The axe is laid at the root of avarice to cut 
the stem low and graft upon the vigorous root of the instinct of 
self-love the delicate plant of divine grace whose fruits are the 
love and service of God and neighbor. Saint Augustine says : 
"Deficiente cupiditate, crescente chantate; proficiamur autem 
in ilia vita, cupidiate extincta, charitate completa."^''^ "As 
cupidity or the love of created things diminishes, charity or 
the love of God increases ; but in the next life, cupidity having 
been extinguished, charity is perfected." The energy of the 
deep-rooted instinct is lifted above the plane of nature, and, 
animated and regulated by the principle of charity, flows out 
and functions in good works. "To borrow a figure from Saint 
Paul, the fertile olive, which is Christ, is grafted on the wild 
olive of the natural man, to make the tree of human nature 
spiritually rich and fertile in the fruits of light."^^^ The energy 
is not lost, but redirected and transformed. It was never the 
mind of the Church to practice self-abnegation and mortifica- 
tion as ends, but as means only. Ennobled by the pure inten- 
tion of increasing one's love of God, the ascetic principle is 
highly rational and moral. Saint Thomas says that voluntary 
poverty, by which the individual deprives himself of owner- 
ship, is the first principle of acquiring charity.^^" Self-love 
and charity are inherently opposed. Self-love is the moving 
principle of nature; charity is the moving power of love. That 
one grows in charity as one practices self-denial with a super- 
natural motive, follows from our Lord's direction, "If any man 
Avill follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and 



3"! Timothy, VI, 10. 

3" "Epistle 177," Migne, Pafrologia Latina. Paris, 1846, Vol. XXXIIl, 
p. 771. 

3™ Ullathorne, W. B., The Endowments of Man. London, 1880, p. 133. 
'80 Cf. Ila, Ilae, Q LXXXVI. 



12G Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

follow Me."^^^ Saint Teresa says : "It is the nature of love to 
toil for the Beloved in a thousand different ways."^®- In the 
Canticle of Canticles is written, ''If a man should give all the 
substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing."^** 
The love of God moves one to regulate legitimate pleasures 
which are not evil in themselves but whose claims are so in- 
sistent that to keep the spiritual supreme in one's life, it is 
necessary to practice self-denial. 

The three degrees of voluntary poverty which have been dis- 
tinguished by the masters of the spiritual life are all levelled 
against avarice and the softness of creature comforts. They 
are (1) the renunciation of all temporal goods and affection 
for them; (2) the renunciation of all physical comforts and 
superfluities; (3) the renunciation of even necessary things 
in order that, by the extreme abandonment of these temporal 
goods and affection for them, the impediments to God's free 
service may be removed. A religious perfectly poor in spirit 
suffers patiently all the difficulties which are the inseparable 
consequences of her profession, such as hunger, thirst, cold, 
heat and fatigue, without complaining or seeking mitigation of 
them.^^* "God bestows the blessing there where He finds the 
vessel empty ."^^^ He Who made the human heart knows the laws 
of its workings and has revealed them to man in His teaching. 
Throughout His ministry the fundamental law of sacrifice re- 
curs, and perhaps nowhere in more striking words than in the 
paradox, "He that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find 
j^ ?>386 j^ jg a principle capable of scientific demonstration. It 
is the principle underlying the empirical fact that true self- 
development is attained only through self-renunciation and 
self-sacrifice. "And so these two, self-culture and self-sacrifice, 
both present themselves as true and pressing duties of a human 
existence. No man has any right to contemplate the life before 
him, no man has any right to be living at any moment of his 



381 Mark, VIII, 34. 

3*2 Interior Castle, translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook. London, 
1906, p. 237. 

383 Canticle, VIII, 7. 

38* Cf. Cormier, Hyacinthe- Marie, O.P., L' Instruction des Novices. Paris, 
1905, pp. 394-397. 

385 4 Kempis, T., Imitatio Christi, IV, 15. 

386 Matthew, XVI, 25. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 127 

life unless he knows himself to be doing all that he can to 
develop his soul and make it shine with its peculiar lustre in 
the firmament of existence. And no man has a right to be living 
at any moment unless he is also casting himself away and 
entering into the complete and devoted service of his fellow- 
men. In order to cultivate himself more completely, the man 
is to sacrifice himself more completely. In order to sacrifice 
himself more completely, he is to cultivate himself more com- 
pletely. These two great principles of existence will come into 
harmony with each other only when they pour themselves out 
together and mingle with each other and find themselves a 
part of the great plan of God. Self-culture and self-sacrifice — 
these two have been the great inspiring forces of existence in 
all ages, in every land."^^^ In detaching ourselves from tem- 
poral things, we render ourselves more docile to the truths of 
faith. ''Why are some of the saints so perfect and contem- 
plative? Because they labored to mortify themselves to all 
earthly desires, and, therefore, they could with their whole 
heart fix themselves upon God and be free for holy retire- 
ment."^^^ But the love of God flows out in love of neighbor and 
finds expression either in prayer for him or in active service. 
Poverty becomes the means, therefore, of removing the diffi- 
culties that beset the spiritual life. By retrenching sense- 
gratifications in food and clothing and pleasures that foster 
woldliness, it furnishes a self-discipline which extends to the 
observance of the other two vows.^^® When it has separated the 
religious from her possessions, it has worked unto her pure and 
disinterested love of God. 

The great desire of the religious is to imitate Christ. Y'ltal- 
ized with the spirit of that desire, she reaches out for means 
by which she may resemble Our Lord and follow Him more 
perfectly. The poverty of her Divine Exemplar, Who had not 
where to lay His head,^^'' inspires her with the longing to 
imitate him in this quality, which, far from making life harsh 
and difficult, like the self-denial of the Stoics, heightens spir 



»" Brooks, Phillips, Self-Culture and Self-Sacrifice. Boston, 1892, pp. 12, 
13. 

^^ a Kempis, op. cit., I, 11. 
*«' Cf. Cormier, op. cit., p. 374. 
'« Cf. Luke, IX., 58. 



128 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

itual vitality, braces the soul, and makes self-sacrifice a joy. 
She loves it for its own sake, because it is a precious bond 
between her and her Divine Spouse. 

The socializing influence of the vow and virtue of poverty 
is derived from the common life which is strictly prescribed in 
all congregations.^''^ Any effort, therefore, to appraise its 
value as a factor in teaching-training involves an inquiry into 
this mode of life as to its organization and the activities, respon- 
sibilities, and relations of its members, with a view to deter- 
mine the physical and psychological elements in their environ- 
ment which influence the reactions, intellectual, emotional, 
and volitional, of the novices in training. Postulating the 
fundamental principle that experience differentiates according 
to constant principles, we may say that as environmental condi- 
tions are stable and permanent, the reactions will crystallize 
into habits. From the subjective nature of the topic under 
consideration, however, some of the elements are necessarily 
hidden and elusive of analysis. 

A religious community corresponds generically to any society, 
but with the specific difference that its members are bound to 
tend to perfection according to the vows of poverty, chastity, 
and obedience.^''^ It is governed by the rule and constitutions 
of the congregation, which are the expression of the three vows 
reduced to practice, and which determine the daily observance 
of the duties of the members. 

The term common life is self-explanatory. The member-s live 
in community; all observe the same rule of life; all have in 
common and share in common the material things of the com- 
munity, ''not in equal measure, because all are not of equal 
strength, but so as to provide for each according to her need."^^^ 
Both poverty and obedience are inherent principles of the com- 
mon life. We are concerned with the value of poverty only, 
since from it is derived logically the obligation of seeking 
always the common good. The psychological value of actual 
performance in order to gain functional knowledge is consis- 



391 Heimbucher, op. cit., p. 37. 
382 Cf. Saint Thomas, Ila, Ilae, Q CLXXXVI. 

3" "Rule of Saint Augustine," Book of Constitvtions of the Sisters of the 
Third Order of Saint Dominic, p. 1. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 129 

tently recognized in forming the novice to the practice of this 
quality. The actual participation of each member in the good 
of the whole and the mutual cooperation of all to secure it 
give both the point of view of disinterestedness and the prac- 
tical training in the virtue. It is laid upon each as an obliga- 
tion flowing from the vow of poverty, which is an instrument 
leading to perfect charity,^^* to place the community advantage 
before her own interest. Saint Augustine says in his Kule: 
"The more you study the advantage of the community in prefer- 
ence to your own, the more you may know that you advance in 
perfection, since charity, which abideth forever, has thus the 
pre-eminence over those things which only supply the transitory 
necessities of this life."^^^ Into a community permeated and 
dominated by this principle, the novice enters upon her admis- 
sion into the religious life. The opening sentence of the Kule 
of Saint Augustine gives the keynote of the spirit of religious 
life: ''The first purpose for which you have been brought 
together is that you dwell in unity in the house, and that you 
have but one soul and one heart in God ; and call not anything 
your own, but let all things be commou."^^'^ Next to the rela- 
tionships of the family, probably none are so intimate as those 
of the members of tlie same religious community. These rela- 
tionships have both a social and a spiritual character. The 
social relationships flow from daily association and from having 
in common and sharing in common all the externals of life per- 
taining to the daily work and recreation and to all the interests 
and responsibilities of the corporate life of the community. 
The spiritual relationships which unite the members are chiefly 
two: (1) the fundamental Christian spirit of charity, animat- 
ing and binding all and urging all to work for God's Kingdom ; 
(2) the spirit of the Keligious Founder of the Order, constitut- 
ing a distinct relationship among the members of one religious 
family. The educational forces of social cooperation and 
mutual helpfulness, permeated by the love of God, are continu- 
ally operative, and develop in the individuals a social spirit 
and social insight. 



39^ Cf. Saint Thomas, Ila, Ilae, Q CLXXXVI, Art. 1. 

335 Op. cil., p. 11. 

336 Ibid., p. 1. 



130 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

The common life, by reducing all to an equality of condition, 
contributes to a purely democratic spirit. The members differ 
among themselves in temperament, training, character, and 
experience. They come with one motive — to attain perfection ; 
that is, to acquire as close a resemblance to Our Lord as possi- 
ble, that they may live in union with Him in this world and in 
Heaven. They come in response to God's call to this state of 
life as their particular vocation. As far as possible, they 
remove the obstacles to the life of perfection by renouncing 
their claim to all material things, their affections, and their 
wills. By the vow of poverty they reduce themselves to the 
equality of non-possession, whatever may have been their for- 
tune in the world. This equality extends, moreover, to all 
humanity, because no one can be poorer than he who owns 
nothing. A different set of values obtains in religious commu- 
nity life from those in the commercial world. The coin current 
in the realm of the common life is self-denial. "Let those 
consider themselves richest who are the best able to bear absti- 
nence; for it is better to need less than to have more."^''^ Saint 
Benedict said: 'The vice of personal ownership must, by all 
means, be cut out of the monastery by the very root, so that no 
one may presume to give or receive anything without the com- 
mand of the superior nor to have anything whatever as his 
own, neither a book, nor a writing tablet, nor a pen, nor any- 
thing else whatsoever. . . . Let all things be common to 
all, as it is written. And let no one have or take to himself 
anything as his own."^^^ Saint Bernard says : "Nihil appelat 
singulariter suum sed ad omnia dicit nostrum, nisi de patre et 
matre et de peccato"^^^ ("He calls nothing his own, but he says 
nostrum for everything except his father and mother and his 
sins"). Strictly speaking, the words meum and tuum do not 
find place in the vocabulary of a religious. 

Equality in externals is further secured and emphasized by 
the religious habit which members of communities of women 
are required to wear; otherwise, they lack that public profes- 
sion which characterizes the religious state in the sight of the 



'" Rule of Saint Augustine, op. cit., p. 5. 

'"s Rule, op. cit., pp. 82, 83. 

333 Vetus Disciplina Monastica. Paris, 1726, c. 19. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 131 

Church according to the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of 
Bishops and Regulars, August 11, 1889.*"° The plainness and 
severity of the garb symbolizes detachment, and is an insistent 
reminder of the renunciation which is a negative preparation 
for the consecration of the will and energies of the religious to 
the service of God and neighbor. That the religious habit 
should make for liberty of spirit is implied in the Rule of Saint 
Augustine: '*If any one complain that she has received a worse 
habit than she had before, and that she is not considered worthy 
to be clothed like the other Sisters, you prove how wanting you 
are in that interior holy raiment of the heart when you thus 
contend about the clothing of the body." Herein the religious 
habit finds psychological justification.*"^ 

It is the custom of nearly all the religious congregations of 
women to carry effacement a step further. A novice relin- 
quishes her name when she enters religion and receives a religi- 
ous name, differing from her baptismal name. This has the 
twofold purpose of removing the last vestige of her social status 
and also of linking her by another bond to the religious family 
of which she becomes a member. These are accidentals, but 
since ''Nihil est in intellectu quod prius non fuerat in serisu," 
according to the maxim of Aristotle, the things of sense will 
affect our deepest convictions. The suggestion that flows from 
this stripping the self of all tangible distinctions, which obtains 
in all religious communities, constitutes a constructive influ- 
ence in developing a readiness and courage to meet hardships. 
Moreover, the removal of minor personal interests makes easier 
the unselfish girding of powers for the great purposes of life, 
and, therefore, the forming of the true basis of character. This 
casting away of personal distinction is, therefore, an element to 
be weighed in an evaluation of environmental agencies at hand 
to form the novice to the spirit and practice of community 
service. 

The novice must be willing to enter upon any work assigned 
her. She has renounced her will, and by that fact places her- 
self in any capacity that her superior may direct. As an ele- 
ment of religious discipline, manual work is required from 



^ Cf. Vermeersch, A., "Religious," Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, p. 753. 
«i Op. cit., p. 26. 



132 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

every novice. Saint Jerome writes of the manual labor in the 
convent where Saint Paula and Saint Eustochium lived: ''I 
hear that they who formerly could not bear the dirt of the 
streets, who were supported on the arms of slaves and found 
it difficult to step on the rough ground; they to whom a silk 
dress was a burden and the heat of the sun as a burning fire ; 
now, clad in poor and somber garments and courageous in emu- 
lating each other, clean the lamps, make the fires, sweep the 
floors, wash the vegetables, throw the bundle of herbs into the 
pots of boiling water, set the table, pass around the drinking 
cups, serve the food, and run hither and thither."*°2 

On account of the close connection between muscular activity 
and the will, manual work, done with the proper motive, has 
value for strengthening the will. It has still greater value as a 
formative influence upon character in teaching the lesson of 
the dignity of manual labor, and also of the human person as 
independent of the work which engages him. It cultivates, 
therefore, true humility, a sense of reality, and a love of sin- 
cerity that lie at the heart of character. To these ends manual 
work forms an integral part of novitiate training. 

The fact that much of the manual work in community life is 
done in groups giv^es it a socializing value. The conscious indi- 
viduality is lost more effectively in work done by a group than 
in any other way, since the individual under that condition 
shares in the common consciousness and develops an interest in 
the common good. The consciousness that several persons are 
working at the same task and serving the same cause makes 
for the spirit of cooperation and devotion to the common good. 
With a sense of particii)ation in work comes genuine private 
care of public property. The teacher who acquires this sense 
through experience vrill thereby gain the power to cultivate it 
in her pupils. 

The sharing in common of the religious life extends to all 



*°* "Sed tamen audio, quae immundias platearum ferre non poterant, quae 
eunuchoruvi manibus 'portabuntur et inaequale solum molesthis transcendehant; 
quihus serica vestis oneri erat, et solis color incendium, nunc sordidatae et lugu- 
hres et sui comparatione forticulae, vel lucernas concinnant, vel succendunt focum, 
pavimenta verrunt, mundant legumina, olerum fasciculos in ferventem ollam 
dejiciunt apponunt mensas calices porrigunt, effundunt cibos, hue illucque dis- 
currunt." Saint Jerome, "Epistle, LXVI, Ad Pammachium," Migne, Patro- 
hgia. Paris, 1845, Vol. XXII, p. 646. 



Pedagogical Value of WilUngness 133 

the externals of the daily life. The tasks of the daily routine 
are assigned to the novice as to the professed religious, to 
accomplish either singly or in a group, according to the nature 
of the work, but all the tasks are for the community and none 
for the individual herself. "No one shall work anything for 
herself alone, . . . but all your work shall be done for the 
common use, and all with greater zeal and more cheerful dili- 
gence than if you were each employed for yourself alone; 
. . . for it is written of charity that 'it seeketh not its own,' 
which means that charity prefers the general good to its own, 
not its own to the general good."*"^ The habitual performing 
of the community advantage in preference to one's personal 
interest is the underlying and unifying principle of the common 
life. It admits no compromise. The novices serve each other in 
the offices of their daily routine of life, in the refectory, in the 
work-room, and at the various tasks of the day. Saint Benedict 
says : "Let the brethren serve so that no one be excused from 
the work in the kitchen except on account of sickness or more 
necessary work ; because greater merit and more charity is 
thereby acquired. Let help be given to the weak, however, that 
they may not do their work with sadness ; but let all have help 
according to the size of the community and the circumstances 
of the place."*"* 

The heart and center of the task of community life is loving 
service. The only worthy ambition in community life is priority 
of service. Our Divine Saviour, the Model of every religious, 
''sitting down, called the twelve, and saith to them: If any 
man desire to be first, he shall be the last of all, and the 
minister of all."*°^ Again, "And whosoever will be first among 
you, shall be the servant of all. For the Son of man also is not 
come to be ministered unto, but to minister."*"^ This brings us 
to the question in the center of pedagogical consciousness today 
— the problem of adequate motivation. The Divine Teacher, 
Who in His teaching anticipated the findings of modem psy- 
chology because He had perfect insight, taught the principle of 



*°^ Rule of Saint Augttsiine, op. cit., pp. 10, 11. 
*o* Op. cit., p. 84. 
*o^ Mark, IX, 34. 
«6 Mark, X, 44, 45. 



134 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

love and carried this motive into every act of His life and every 
utterance of His teaching. It is noteworthy how seldom on the 
pages of the Gospels the word duty occurs and how often the 
word ^0176 is found. Our Lord, knowing human nature per- 
fectly, knew that the spirit of love would release man's deepest 
energies for service, which Avould lie dormant if the appeal was 
made only to the stern sense of duty. 

The strongest motive of service is the love of God. That we 
serve Him when we render service to our neighbor, He Himself 
told His disciples in the parable of loving service: *'Amen, 1 
say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least 
brethren, you did it to Me."*°^ Moreover, He insisted that the 
only ground of true service is self-sacrificing love, and not 
recompense. "When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not 
thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor thy neigh- 
bors who are rich ; lest perhaps they also invite thee again, and 
recompense be made to thee. 

"But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, 
the lame, and the blind ; 

"And thou shalt be blessed because they have not wherewith 
to make thee recompense."*"^ 

There is no exhortation here to give service on an 
economic basis or for any personal satisfaction, but from un- 
selfish love of the person, seeing the soul stamped with the 
image of Jesus Christ and redeemed by His Great Sacrifice. 
The love of Our Lord and of our neighbor because He first 
loved him is the source and center from which will proceed the 
impulse and the power to give service. 

The working day in community life offers countless oppor- 
tunities for just this kind of service; disinterested acts done in 
a kindly, genial manner, not merely because one happens to be 
in a generous mood or because it is a personal friend whom one 
wishes to help, but from an active ministering spirit of loving 
service. Such an habitual spirit is no academic acquisition, 
nor is it easy of attainment. Only as one enters into Our Lord's 
purposes for men and comes to a recognition of His teaching, 
which was "Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby ; and 



«7 Matthew, XXV, 40. 
*os Luke, XIV. 12-14. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 135 

your reward shall be great,"^^^ is it possible to enter into the 
genuine spirit of service. Our Lord took the pains to teach in 
the parable of the Good Samaritan that a neighbor is a person 
in need ; therefore there is no place for fine discrimination or 
personal choice in the matter. His words must come with per- 
sonal force to each one of us, "This is My commandment, that 
you love one another, as I have loved you."*^° 

The care of the sick and the infirm furnishes opportunity and 
work for loving service. The constitutions of every religious 
congregation command that the sick members receive adequate 
and tender care. "Before and above all things, care must be 
taken of the sick, that they be served in very truth as Christ 
was served ; because. He hath said, 'I was sick and you visited 
Me;' and, 'As long as you did it to one of these My least 
brethren, you did it to Me.' But let the sick themselves also 
consider that they are served for the honor of God, and let 
them not grieve their brethren who serve them by unnecessary 
demands. These must, however, be patiently borne with, be- 
cause from such as these a more bountiful reward is gained. 
Let the abbot's greatest concern, therefore, be that they suffer 
no neglect."*^^ The Eule points clearly to the fact that service 
derives its inspiration from religion and its active ministering 
force from the same power. To see God in man and to recognize 
the value of man's immortal soul is the inevitable condition of 
highest personal sacrifice. It not only makes sacrifice rational, 
but places such worth upon the human person as to lift it to the 
sphere of supernatural values. 

The community recreation is a daily exercise in every religi- 
ous house, to which great importance attaches. This hour of 
informal intercourse is a natural outlet of the social impulse, 
affording an opportunity for all the novices to meet. It is a 
fruitful means in community life to promote mutual under- 
standing and good fellowship. If recreation is to be of good 
quality, it must stimulate the agreeable emotions. The mind 
cannot be emotionally colorless. It is, therefore, regarded a 
high duty in religious life to come with a good spirit to recrea- 



tes Luke, VI, 35. 

"0 John, XV, 12. 

^11 Rule of Saint Benedict, pp. 87, 



136 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

tion and to join heartily in it. Good feeling is contagious. It 
has great socializing value. Except the spiritual exercises, 
probably nothing during the day so enriches and unifies the 
community spirit as does the recreation period, because it culti- 
vates a general intimacy among the members. Empirically, we 
know that further acquaintance with a person ordinarily makes 
for kind feeling. Philosophically, Saint Thomas states the 
principle underlying the fact: ^'Quantum honum plenius cog- 
noscitwr, tanto magis est amahile."'^^'^ "The more fully a good 
is known, the more lovable it is." 

There remains for consideration the subject of prayer, which 
is the great formative influence for service in the life of the 
novice. Herein she finds the means to invoke the Source of 
Light and Strength for grace to enlighten her mind and 
strengthen her will to do the daily tasks. Prayer is of two 
kinds, public and private. Public prayer is vocal, that all who 
are assembled may unite and pray in common. Our Lord has 
promised that where two or three are gathered together in His 
name there will He be in the midst of them.^^^ The public 
prayers are the great acts of liturgical worship. The great 
public prayers common to the religious are (1) the Holy Sacri- 
fice of the Mass, at which the novices assist each morning to 
offer to God anew Our Lord's Great Act of Sacrifice and to 
receive the graces which flow from that Sacrifice; (2) Holy 
Communion, in which they receive the Author of all grace. Him 
whose Heart is the Heart of Charity. Mass and Holy Com- 
munion are two great sources of supernatural strength, and the 
floods of grace flowing from these fountains give capacity for 
sacrifice and rouse the will to high endeavor; (3) the Office, 
which in most congregations of women is the Little Office, con- 
sisting of the Psalms and short lessons from Holy Scripture. 
The term Office, in its usual signification, implies a principal 
duty of a state of life. In this sense, the office of chanting the 
Divine praises is a duty of religious. The choral recitation of 
the Office morning and evening by a religious community is a 
great act of divine worship. Saint Augustine says: ''Oh, in 
what accents spake I unto Thee, my God, when I read the 



"2 3 Lib., Dist. 27, Q. 3, Art. 1. 
<" Cf. Matthew, XVIII, 20. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 137 

Psalms of David, those faithful songs and sounds of devotion ' 
. . . How was I by them kindled towards Thee, and on fire 
to rehearse them, if possible, through the whole world against 
the pride of mankind l"*^* Prescinding entirely the super- 
natural effect which is the end of every prayer, it has a psycho- 
logical effect, as has every mental state. The chanting of the 
Office by all the community "'with mind and voice in one ac- 
cord"*^^ has a unifying, spiritually-exalting influence upon the 
corporate body. The effect is heightened when each ''hour'' 
is preceded by the prayer, Domine, in unione, etc., in which the 
intention is renewed to offer these Divine praises with the same 
intention with which Our Lord offered praises to God. The fre- 
quent renewal of this intention widens charity and makes it 
embrace all humanity. 

Private prayer includes meditation, examination of con- 
science, and devotional prayers. Meditation is essentially a 
turning of the mind to God and entertaining oneself with Him 
in the inner sanctuary of the heart. There are various methods 
of meditation, and in every method all the faculties of the soul 
are exercised to make the heart love the law of God. Since the 
great truths of faith do not fall within the cognizance of the 
senses, they make very little impression upon the mind. In 
order to realize them, it is necessary to dispose the mind con- 
sciously to their consideration. The preparation for medita- 
tion is of two kinds — the general or remote — consisting of a 
certain disposition of mind and heart which presupposes the 
removal of all obstacles to prayer. Cassian said, in his Confer- 
ence on Prayer, ^'Et ideo primum de qualitate ejus desideramus 
institui; id est, qualis deheat emitti semper oratio; deinde 
qualiter Jmnc eamdem, quaecumque est, possidere vel exercere 
sine inter mis sione possimus."*^^ ''Wherefore what we want to 
find ourselves like while we are praying, that we ought to pre- 
pare ourselves to be before the time of prayer," for we can 
never be more in prayer than we are out of prayer. The par- 
ticular or proximate preparation consists in certain acts made 
immediately before meditation. Reading stimulates the mem- 



♦i-* Confessions of Saint Avgvstine, translated by Pusey. London, 1907, 
p. 180. 

"» Rule of Saint Benedict, Chapter, 19, p. 62. 

♦16 Collatio, IX, Migne, Patrologia Latina. Paris. 1846. p. 779. 



138 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

ory and imagination to furnish the considerations to the 
intellect suitable for meditation. "Meditation fixates the atten- 
tion, and so can develop associations and thus bring out weak 
sentiments and ideas."*^^ Payot makes distinction between the 
purpose of reading or studying and that of meditation : ''When 
we study, as a matter of fact, we seek primarily to know; when 
we reflect, we have quite another intention. Our aim is to 
awaken in the soul sensations either of love or hatred."*^® It 
is thus that the psychologist conceives the act of meditation. 
Masters of the spiritual life go further, and say that meditation 
is not so much a sustained effort of reflection or concentration 
of thought upon some abstract subject of morality or religion 
as it is a loving intercourse of the soul with Our Lord, and that 
the immediate efl'ect, therefore, is to raise the soul above its 
own selfish preoccupations by attaching itself firmly to God.*^® 
"Mental prayer or meditation does not consist in thinking 
much, but in loving much," was a maxim of Saint Teresa.*^^ 
This daily morning exercise is a potent means to develop a 
spiritual vision, enabling the soul to see the Divine Will in the 
daily events of life and to place the Divine interests uppermost 
in her life. As all powers develop by exercise, the soul in 
meditation grows in the love of God by the concentration of its 
native force upon the truths of faith, in the contemplation of 
the divine perfections, and in its intimate conversation with 
the Person of Our Lord, in accordance with the modern state- 
ment of the psychological law of habit, which had been enun- 
ciated before by the Divine Teacher in the words, "For he that 
hath, to him shall be given; and he that hath not, that also 
which he hath shall be taken away from him."*^^ 

That religious have universally and at all times recognized 
the fruitfulness of meditation in the spiritual life, both to will 
and to act, is apparent from the important place that it holds 
in the daily religious life. In the early ages and throughout 



*" Hall, G. S., Of. cit.. Vol. I, p. 298. 

418 L'Education de la VolontL Paris, 1903, p. 92. 

*i8 Cf. Mercier, D., Cardinal, Conferences, translated by O'Kavanagh, J. 
New York, 1910, p. 103. 

420 Cf . Alphonsus Fi., Carmelite, Practice of Mental Prayer and of Perfection 
According to Saint Teresa and Saint John of the Cross, translated by O'Connell, 
J. Rome, 1910, p. 323. 

*2i Mark, IV, 25. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 139 

the Middle Ages meditation was so much a part of the daily 
life of a religious that those who formulated the rule and con- 
stitutions made no regulation for it. In the Rule of Saint 
Benedict there is no allotted time for meditation. Since the 
close of the Middle Ages the rule or constitutions of every 
religious order or congregation have provided for the regular 
daily observance of this spiritual exercise. As in the physical 
order so in the spiritual is the maxim true, "Priiis est lucere 
quam illuminare." Saint Thomas says of religious: ''They 
ought to be at once men of action and of contemplation, going 
to God by contemplation and to the people by action."*22 The 
Angelic Doctor urges and at the same time defines the great 
purpose and work of the Dominican vocation in these words : 
''Et sicut majus est illiiminare quam lucere solum ita majus 
est contemplata aliis tradere quam solus contemplarV'^'^^ 
"And as it is greater to diffuse light than to shine only, so it 
is greater to give to others the fruits of contemplation than to 
contemplate only." 

The most fruitful subject of meditation is some mystery in 
the life of Our Lord. "Meditation is only obedience to Saint 
Paul's injunction, 'Think dilligently upon Him that endured 
such opposition from sinners against Himself, that you be not 
wearied, fainting in your mind.' "*^* Consistent with this com- 
mand of Saint Paul's was his frequent admonition to put on 
the Lord Jesus Christ and to be imitators of Him, and his 
constant endeavor to form in the minds and hearts of his 
followers a perfect image of Our Lord. To imitate Christ is 
the high road to perfection ; the study of how to do this effec- 
tively is the great work of meditation. He is the Ideal, the 
Divine Exemplar of every religious. As the artist in his studio 
works with his model before him and frequently refers to it as 
he develops his conception, so the religious in her daily life 
often tunis the inner eye of the soul to her Divine Model to 
conform her conduct to her Copy. Especially is meditation a 
time to dwell in mind upon Our Blessed Lord in some mystery. 



"2 "Ut pote qui medii sunt inter Deum et plebem; a Deo yecipientes per con- 
templationem et papula tradeniea per actionem." 3 Lib., Dist., XXXV, Q. I. 
Art. 3, p. 586. 

*^^ Constitutiones Fratrum S. Ordinis Praedicatorum. Paris, 1886, p. 16. 

«^ Elliott, op. cit., p. 192. 



140 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

incident, or teaching of His life. If the novice has the desire 
for perfection that moved her to renounce material and social 
pleasures, she will endeavor to form her life according to the 
Divine Master and persistently to imitate Him in her conduct. 

In the heart of every religious is the deep desire to strive after 
two of Our Divine Saviour's perfections especially, which im- 
plies a persistent sensitiveness of conscience that is both the 
condition and the effect of the steady cultivation of the interior 
life: (1) The desire to do always the Will of God. "I came 
down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him 
that sent me."*^^ And again, "My meet is to do the will of Him 
that sent Me, that I may perfect His work."*-^ (2) Compas- 
sion and loving service and self-sacrifice. "The Son of Man is 
not come to be ministered unto, but to minister."*^^ The 
lesson is constantly recurring in His teaching that the 
only consistent ambition of His followers is the ambition 
to surpass in unselfish service. To the disciples whose 
ambition was fixed on the seats of honor He spoke only 
of sacrificial service. "Can you drink of the chalice that I 
drink of?"*^^ To the Twelve He said: "You know that they 
who seem to rule over the Gentiles, lord it over them. . . . 
But it is not so among you : but whosoever will be greater, shall 
be your minister. And whosoever will be first among you, shall 
be the servant of all.'"'*-^ He taught also in parable patient 
readiness for exacting service.*^*^ He repeated insistently the 
great paradox containing the fundamental principle that true 
self-realization comes with self-sacrifice ; it occurs in all four of 
the Gospels and twice in two of them. "He that shall lose his 
life for My sake, shall find it."*^^ In washing the feet of His 
disciples in the Upper Room the last night before His Great 
Sacrifice He gave the example of humility and service. And 
then He spoke the solemn words, "For I have given you an 
example, that as I have done to you, so you do also. Amen, amen 



«25 John, VI, 38. 
*26 John, IV, 34. 

427 Mark, X, 45. 

428 Mark, X, 38. 

*29 Mark, X, 42-44. 
"0 Cf. Luke, XVII, 7-10. 

"1 Matthew, X, 38, XVI, 25. Luke, IX, 24, XVII. 33, Mark, VIII, 35. 
John, XII, 25. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 141 

I say to you : the servant is not greater than his lord ; neither is 
the apostle greater than He that sent him."*-^ rpj^^ spirit of 
service which Our Lord taught must fill the hearts of His fol- 
lowers. To take a lower standard than this is to be satisfied 
with ordinary and commonplace spiritual attainment. There 
is no exemption from hard things for one who has chosen to 
imitate Christ. These lessons, all culminating in the Great 
Sacrifice, are the lessons that the novice learns in her associa- 
tion with the Divine Teacher of service in daily meditation. 
One gradually grows to resemble the person whom one admires 
and loves and associates with; so the novice should begin to 
show in her daily life some slight resemblance to Our Divine 
Saviour in her self-surrender. This is the heart of her task, to 
practice His self-sacrifice. When she places herself under His 
inspiration in meditation she learns to place the spiritual iu 
the center of her interests. 

To supply material for meditation spiritual reading is neces 
sary. The shifting scenes and distracting cares of daily work 
haunt the imagination unless the mind is enriched with food 
for thought. The Founders of Eeligious Orders have appre- 
ciated the value of this daily spiritual exercise, and have in- 
cluded it in the rule or constitutions. In the novitiate it is a 
daly practice. Of all spiritual reading the Holy Scripture is 
the most excellent. The Gospels represent in the concrete the 
perfection of every virtue in the Incarnate Wisdom of God. 
Saint Augustine saj^s: "Let Thy Scriptures be my pure de- 
light ; let me not be deceived in them, nor deceive out of them. 
. . . Let me confess unto Thee whatsoever I shall find in Thy 
books, and hear the voice of praise, and drink in Thee, and 
meditate on the wonderful things out of Thy law."*^^ Saint 
Jerome, writing to EustcK-hiuni, said: "Kead very frequently; 
learn as much as possible. Let sleep overcome you in your 
reading, and when your head falls, let it be on the pages of 
Holy Scriptmes."^^* He said, "It was not permitted to any of 



«2John, XIII, 15-16. 

"5 Confessions of Saint Augiistine, op. cit., p. 254. 

"* "Crebrius lege, disce quam plurimum, Tenenti faciem codicem somnus 
obrepat et cadentem faciem pagina sancta svscipiat." Epistle, XXII, Migne, 
Patrologia Latina. Paris, 1845, Vol. XXII, p. 404. 



142 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

the Sisters to be ignorant of the Psalms, or not to learn dailj 
something from Holy Scriptures."*^^ 

Besides the Holy Scriptures, spiritual reading includes: 
(1) Instruction on the spiritual life, which consists of treatises 
on the principles of spirituality, the virtues and the means of 
acquiring them. (2) Exhortatory reading, as the Imita- 
tion of Christ and the writings of the Venerable Blosius, which 
tend to become a kind of prayer and dispose the heart to the 
genuine love of God. (3) The Lives of the Saints, and espe- 
cially those of one's particular Order, which form inspiring 
reading to those striving for the goal which these spiritual 
athletes have already won. The psychological value which 
Doctor G. Stanley Hall attaches to the reading of the Lives 
of the Saints, "lives full of ethical uplift, and which appeal to 
the heroic instincts of the young," has given this subject con- 
siderable vogue in educational circles, for it is "A great arsenal 
of material rich to this end" [of moral education] .*^^ As a 
moral stimulus to heroic endeavor, they are no less valuable 
to religious than to younger minds. 

Self-examination as a spiritual exercise may be considered 
supplementary to meditation. The profitable meditation has 
fixed upon some definite resolution for the day's practice. In 
self-examination the religious searches herself to see how far 
she has conformed to the moral law and how far she has been 
faithful to her morning resolution. In meditation she dwells 
especially upon her Divine Exemplar, in Whom "Mercy and 
truth have met each other; justice and peace have kissed,"*^^ 
and in Whom all the virtues are incarnate to an infinite 
degree. Examination of conscience is a kind of medita- 
tion in which she turns the mental eye upon her own soul and 
measures her own thoughts, words, and acts by the spiritual 
standard to see how far the spirit of Christ has been realized 
in her actions and how far self-love has vitiated them. There 
is always a distance between the standard and the attainment ; 
therefore, the self-examination is always followed by sorrow.. 



435 "JVec licebat cuiquam sororum ignorare Psalmos, et non de Scripturis 
Sanctis quotidie aliquid discere." Epistle, CVIII, ibid, p. 896. 
«« Hall, G. S., op. cit.. Vol. I, p. 300. 
*" Psalm, LXXXIV. 11. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingiiess 143 

whose source is the love of God, Whom she has offended. Every 
artist has scientific principles of criticism by which he judges 
his production. His progress in a great measure is conditioned 
by the exactness with which he applies these canons of art to 
his daily achievement. Attainment comes only with persever- 
ing effort. At intervals there must be a comparison of the 
results of his work with the perfection of the model and a fore- 
cast of how he can improve upon his past attainment. This is 
the rationale of self-examination. 

Examination of conscience is of two kinds — general and 
particular. The general, made at the close of the day, aims to 
review the day's conduct to correct all faults; the particular, 
made in the morning, by way of forecast, and at noon and at 
evening in retrospect, aims to correct a single fault or to 
acquire a single virtue. Self-examination, when seriously prac- 
ticed, is a potent means of keeping the motive right. By the 
particular examen especially the novice trains herself to work 
for purity of intention which excludes all self-interest. To 
secure right motivation requires the freeing of the affections 
from created things to attach them to God's Will. By the 
steady effort to make habitual the purity of intention, which is 
the mainspring of the inner life, she lays hold of the dynamic 
of the life of service. Mindful of Our Divine Lord's words, 
''For from within out of the heart of men proceed evil 
thoughts,"*^* she knows that vigilant watchfulness of motive 
is the price of high spiritual attainment. Herein lies the great 
value of the particular examen. 

The contributions which the novitiate makes toward fitting 
the candidate teacher to train in citizenship is this: It fur- 
nishes the working conditions, the adequate motive and the 
social reinforcement of example to form in the teacher habitual 
willingness for disinterested service. 

///. The Means of Heightening the Spirit of Disinterestedness 
of the Religious Teacher While in Service 

The actual living day by day the community life that the 
religious teacher has entered will keep the spirit of service and 



"8 Mark, VII, 21. 



144 Pedagogical Value of Willingness 

sacrifice in active force in her daily life. In the novitiate, 
while she was free from any obligation but that of gratitude 
and charity, she laid the groundwork of the religious life and 
cultivated the sacrificial spirit. After profession of the vows 
she is bound by justice, which inheres in the contract that has 
been drawn between the novice and her religious superiors 
representing the congregation, as well as by charity, to practice 
the virtue of poverty, which fosters the spirit of sacrifice.*"^ 
The question as to the means of heightening the spirit of dis- 
interestedness is the question of how to keep alive and active 
the spirit of self-sacrifice and self-devotion. In the light of the 
knowledge of the fundamental laws of psychology, the answer 
is not difficult. The principle of expressional activity is one 
factor in the solution of the problem. To give expression to an 
inclination strengthens it. "The motor consequences are what 
clinch it. Some effect due to it in the way of an activity must 
return to the mind in the form of the sensation of having acted, 
and connect itself v/ith the impression. The most durable im- 
pressions are those on account of which we speak or act, or else 
are inwardly convulsed."**^ But back of the psychological 
factor lies the supernatural motive. Acting upon the lever of 
divine grace obtained through the Sacraments, the daily Mass, 
prayer, and the faithful observance of the vows and rule, the 
will is invigorated for high performance, and gradually forms 
the religious to the more perfect habits of service. The religi- 
ous who has begun earnestly should wish to continue in the 
same spirit. "It is little to have renounced all things at the 
beginning of our conversion if we do not continue in that dis- 
position and renounce them every day."*" 

The discipline and exercise of the religious life form the 
religious character in the same way that the practice of law 
makes the lawyer and the continual experience of business 
makes the man of affairs.**- ''There could be no greater aid to 



«9 Cf. Cormier, H. M., O.P., of. cit., p. 398-99. 

^4" James, W., Talks to Teachers on Psychology. New York, 1899, pp. 33, 34. 

441 "Parum est enim renuntiasse monachum semel, id est, in ■primordio con- 
versionis suae contempsisse praesentia, nisi eis quotidie renuntiare persiiterit." 
Cassian, Collatio, XXIV, Migne, Patrologia, Vol. XLIX, p. 1287. 

"2 Cf. Buckler, H. R., Spiritual Instruction on Religious Life. London, 
1910, p. 174. 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 145 

the creation [of a spiritual conscience] than the spectacle of 
men who can pursue spiritual things with a more powerful 
passion than that with which men of the world follow after 
gold and fame."**^ This represents a type of fervor not beyond 
the reach of the religious who consecrates her will to God by 
the vows. "The Orders understand how to inspire mediocre 
characters, and to educate them in a magnificent fashion to an 
almost superhuman degree of self-sacrifice."*** In the desire 
to persevere and to continue in the self-sacrifice of her first 
charity, the laws of both nature and grace aid the religious 
teacher to the attainment of this high end. 



^■^ Foerster, op. cil., p. 131. 
*^nbid., p. 113, note 1. 



CONCLUSION 

The content of the term citizenship has broadened and has 
come to comprehend all the relationships that are involved in 
membership in a community. It includes especially a sense of 
personal responsibility to the community and a willingness to 
serve it at the sacrifice of self-interest. Citizenship in this 
connotation exists in the form of an ideal to be aimed at rather 
than something already attained. The individual alone and in 
society are two different psychological beings. Whether the 
end of education be stated in terms of individual development 
or social improvement, the relation between the individual and 
society is so intimate that a definition of education must include 
both aims. The task of the school is to develop the germinal 
powers of the child, with the twofold aim of cultivating his 
personal virtue and preserving the strength of his own per- 
sonality, and at the same time of developing his willingness to 
use his powers to serve the community. 

At present the emphasis is on the social importance of the 
school, which is coming to be regarded as a social institution, 
and the teacher as a social worker. ''Service and training for 
service of our fellow-men is, or should be, the keynote of modern 
education."**^ This leads directly to the related subject, the 
equipment of the teacher. Teaching is a fine art. The teacher 
is the only artist who cannot represent the qualities which she 
does not possess. It is essential that she shall exemplify and 
enforce by her own character those virtues that she is to culti- 
vate in the pupils. "What you are, cries out so loud I cannot 
hear what you say," is a picturesque rendering of a practical 
maxim. Since qualities are vitally communicated, a spirit 
enkindles spiritual qualities in another; character begets 
character. 

In the typical training school of the state teacher the train- 
ing is essentially academic and professional. The moral train- 
ing is incidental. However earnestly this school system favor* 
self-sacrifice and self-devotion in the life of the teacher, it lacks 
the power either to engender it or to heighten it. In the train- 



44B Perry, E. D., "Problems of the University," Congress of Arts and Sciences, 
op. cit., p. 161. 

146 



Pedagogical Value of Willingness 147 

ing school of the religious teacher the daily practice of service 
strengthens the habit of sacrifice and service until it becomes 
second nature, and, as it were, organic, so that in the social and 
moral issues of the school her attitude is that of devotion to 
the common welfare. By the subtle power of influence, the 
pupils catch the spirit that cannot be taught. Both ideals and 
habits must be formed by daily contact with one who is thor- 
oughly vital herself. The teacher who is successful in char- 
acter-building strives to express in her own conduct what she 
would form the pupils to practice. "He that shall do and 
teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."**^ 
What the religious life does for training teachers in willingness 
for disinterested service is to create and maintain the condi- 
tions in which it not only can be cultivated, but in which it is 
unconsciously and in a degree necessarily cultivated, and to 
furnish to that end both the natural and the supernatural 
means, which may affect different individuals in varying de- 
gree, but which affect all unconsciously and consciously in a 
very considerable degree. 



*" Matthew, V, 19. 



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VITA 

Sister Mary Euth Devlin was bom in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 
November 26, 1868. She received her elementary education in 
the public school of her native place and a part of her high 
school education at Saint Clara Academy, Sinsinawa, Wis- 
consin. She was graduated from the Wisconsin State Normal 
School at Whitewater in 1895. She was instructor in science 
from 1895 to 1897 in the public high school, Marshfield, Wiscon- 
sin ; from 1897 to 1899 in the Catholic high school, Appleton, 
Wisconsin. In 1899 she entered the novitiate of the Sisters of 
St. Dominic, Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. She was instructor in 
Saint Clara Academy and later in Saint Clara College, pursu- 
ing courses at intervals at Saint Clara College, the Chicago 
University and the Sisters Summer School, Catholic Univer- 
sity, 1911. She received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from 
Saint Clara College in 1912, and that of Master of Arts from 
the Sisters Catholic College in 1913. Since then she has been 
instructor in Saint Clara College and student in residence at 
the Sisters Catholic College, Catholic University of America. 



154 



